Work on the £21 million Travel Ipswich project is due to restart in the town within the next few weeks as it enters the final few months before completion.

The entire scheme is programmed to be completed by the autumn – and county council officials are confident it will be completed on schedule.

A four-week public consultation exercise over the last remaining large scale projects will start on January 20 – beginning with a briefing for councillors involved and continuing with a display in Tower Ramparts outlining what is proposed.

Proposed works include installing traffic lights at the Nacton Road/Felixstowe Road junction at the top of Bishop’s Hill, and replacing the Norwich Road/Chevallier Street mini-roundabouts with traffic lights.

Both proposals have been controversial, and the consultation will give people the chance to have a further say.

Also on display at the consultation will be proposals to change the Queen Street/Princes Street area around Giles’ Circus and proposals to make changes at Major’s Corner.

The roadworks are due to be carried out over the next few months.

Real time passenger information screens are to be installed at the Tower Ramparts and Old Cattle Market bus stations at the end of this month and the beginning of February.

These should take messages from buses, telling passengers how long they can expect to have to wait.

A major improvement for drivers should be the commissioning of the Urban Traffic Management Computer (UTMC) during the year.

This enables traffic lights to be programmed to work with each other and allow convoys of traffic through a number of sets – preventing a build-up of congestion.

Officials are hopeful that this will ease congestion around the Waterfront area of the town – all the lights along Fore Street are due to be linked to each other in an attempt to try to keep the traffic flowing.

As the plans for this year were being finalised during the run-up to Christmas, council officials were optimistic that motorists would benefit.

Cabinet member for Transport Graham Newman said: “It’s key to remember this project will see a gradual improvements over the next year.

“Once the real time passenger information systems are installed and the urban traffic management control system is operational, the road network will begin operating more efficiently, to the benefit of all, whatever their mode of travel.”