CRUCIAL work to replace 50-year-old underground electric cables will mean roadworks misery up until 2012.

Scottish and Southern Electricity who are carrying out the works, began a five week programme digging up Cleveland Road, in Cowley last week.

The works will be added to by a six week block beginning on Friday (18/2) nearby.

A westbound lane will be closed on the Uxbridge Road between Harlington Road, Hillingdon, and Long Lane to facilitate the works. The lane closure will be in operation for 24 hours a day.

The existing electricity network is made up of 66,000 Volts underground cables which run for approximately four kilometres between substations in Iver and Hillingdon.

From Long Lane, the cable travels to Cleveland Road via Uxbridge Road, Royal Lane, and Kingston Lane. After that it travels under Whitehall Road, Walford Road, Cowley Road, Frays Waye, Austin Waye, Waterloo Road, Culvert Lane, Cowley Mill Road, to Longbridge Way. All of these roads are expected to face some level of disruption between now and March 2012.

The project, which looks to replace existing cables with 'modern, more robust, insulated' cable, is expected to cost up to £12 million.

A SSE spokesperson said: "As the work involves cable trenches being created in the carriageway along the above route, it is likely that there will be an impact on the flow of traffic. Traffic management will be put in place throughout the project and SSE is working closely with Hillingdon Council to co-ordinate the work involved throughout the project, and to ensure minimal disruption to customers, traffic and households in the area."

The work is being carried out by contractors O'Connor Utilities Ltd, and the Uxbridge Road works have been timed to coincide with school half-term which begins on Monday.

SSE said there was no reason for electricity supplies to be interrupted during the work.

SSE were responsible for the January 2 powercut which affected 19,000 homes across Hillingdon. The company have said work needs to be completed to fix the cause of the fault, but have not yet explained what needs to be done, where in the borough will be affected, or how long it will take.