THOUSANDS of drivers in the Southampton area are being told to brace themselves for weeks of motoring misery.

The Highways Agency has announced that major repairs are to be carried out to the M271 motorway between Junction 1 and Redbridge roundabout.

Motorists travelling in and out of the city will have to endure six weeks of carriageway closures, delays and diversions.

AA spokesman Rebecca Rees said the £1 million scheme was another blow to local drivers.

"A lot of different sets of roadworks have taken place in that neck of the woods during the past couple of years," she said.

"Roadworks make things better in the long term, but people have to suffer while they are being done.

"Let's hope the Highways Agency keeps drivers in the know at all times and sticks to the schedule it has promised."

Work is due to start on January 8 and take about six weeks.

A temporary 40mph speed limit will be imposed on the M271 between its junction with the A35 and a point just north of Lords-hill interchange.

The southbound entry slip road at the interchange and the northbound exit slip road will be closed off-peak.

Drivers who normally use the southbound entry slip road will have to travel north along the M271 to the M27 and then double back.

And both carriageways of the M271 will be subject to weekend closures.

During the closure of the soutbound carriageway traffic will again be diverted north along the M271 to Junction 3 of the M27.

It will then be directed west along the M27 to Junction 2, south along the A326 to Totton and then east along the A35 to Redbridge.

The diversion will operate in reverse during the closure of the northbound carriageway.