Highways England will be closing Black Dam roundabout overnight next month to carry out improvements, motorists are being warned.

The entire roundabout and its approaches will be shut for a total of 11 nights across August and early September.

It comes after the authority faced calls to take action to improve the roundabout following a series of accidents in June - one of which left a 70-year-old man in hospital.

The site will be shut for one night on Tuesday, August 3 and for four nights from Monday, August 23. It will then be closed for six nights from Tuesday, August 31.

Diversions will be put in place, Highways England said.

Explaining their decision, a spokesman for Highways England said: “Back in 2015 we completed improvement work to the A30/A339 Black Dam roundabout, north of junction 6. The scheme created an A339 northbound “through” carriageway with a connecting link from the A30 London Road onto the A339 northbound, as well as widening of all entry arms onto the roundabout.

“Prior to these improvements, responsibility for the Black Dam roundabout was with Hampshire County Council. Before we hand the junction back to the local authority, we have some additional work which needs to be completed.

“New road studs and reflective markers will be installed to provide better reflectivity at night time, renewal of road markings to provide better visibility of lanes and cutting back of overgrown vegetation to improve sightlines.”

As previously reported in the Gazette, there have been 122 accidents on the roundabout in the last 22 years since 1999.

However, more than 40 of these have happened since 2016 when the roundabout underwent a complete redesign costing £11million.

In comparison, there have been 12 accidents on the Brighton Hill Roundabout during the same time period, six on the Hackwood Road Roundabout, 16 on the Oakridge Road Roundabout and 25 on the Thorneycroft Roundabout near Morrisons supermarket.

The figures come from an interactive online map created by road safety experts, CrashMap.

They also include accidents within the vicinity of the roundabout, which we have deducted from the totals to give a more accurate figure.

The tool includes all severities of crashes – slight, serious, or fatal – as well as when it happened, the number of vehicles involved and the number of reported casualties.

The Gazette previously revealed in 2016 - following the opening of the newly designed Black Dam Roundabout - that accidents had increased, after we submitted a Freedom of Information Request.

Calls from borough councillors and residents were made at the time to improve the safety of the roundabout.

This included former UKIP parliamentary candidate Robert Blay who was involved in a serious accident on the roundabout in June 2016 resulting in him suffering a badly bruised collar bone.

The roundabout underwent and £11m redesign by Highways England in October 2014, with delays resulting in the work taking 16 months to complete.

After The Gazette highlighted the increase in accidents and concerns over the dangerous layout in 2016, Highways England decided to review the roundabout and carry out improvement works to the layout which took place in 2017.

Highways England said that since the redesign of the roundabout, it had seen an increase in traffic using it, from an average of 46,000 vehicles a day in 2000, to 56,000 in 2019.

A spokesperson previously told this newspaper: "Safety is Highways England's top priority and we continually monitor the safety of all our schemes after they open. Since the Black Dam roundabout project was completed Highways England safety analysis shows that the proportion of serious collisions at the junction has reduced.

“Nevertheless, we recognise concern that has been expressed and will continue to keep the safety of the roundabout under continual review and work with the local community on any future improvements."