DRIVERS have been warned to brace themselves for exceptionally heavy traffic in Southampton today.

A combination of four cruise ships in port, Southampton's home fixture against Stoke City and roadworks on some of the city's key routes is expected to make routes in and out of the city centre extremely busy for commuters.

It comes two weeks after drivers were stuck in a city centre car park for as long as 90 minutes as they desperately tried to make their way home from West Quay.

Today there is expected to be more than 12,500 passengers in the city, but Southampton City Council says it has already made plans to help ease the pressure on the city's roads.

A spokesperson said: “With expected increased volumes of traffic, we have implemented a plan to try and minimise any traffic issues.

“As part of these measures there will be increased capacity around the ongoing road works at Town Quay to help the flow of traffic. In addition the traffic signals at Town Quay/High Street will be under manual control to ease the flow of traffic.”

“This traffic is by no means an unusual occurrence and it's very much business as usual. However we do ask people to take a sensible approach when planning their journey and modes of transport.”

The spokesperson added that Harbour Parade which was at the centre of utility works is now fully open until the New Year, when more work is expected to resume.

While Royal Crescent Road, which was at the centre of a gas leak which forced a road closure for two days, is re-open. There will also be two lanes open between Mayflower Park roundabout and Town Quay.