WORK to build a £1.2m roundabout at an A590 accident blackspot is due to start in February.

The Highways Agency has advertised for firms to tender to build the roundabout at the Greenodd junction, linking the A590 and the A595.

The work is expected to take 21 weeks.

The long-running campaign for a roundabout finally achieved victory last March.

Now the tender invitation has been published by the Highways Agency and firms wanting to build the roundabout have until tomorrow (6) to put bids in.

Furness Enterprise welcomed the publication of invitations to tender.

Chief executive Harry Knowles said: “There have been many bad accidents at Greenodd. The roundabout is part of the solution.

“We hope Furness and Cumbrian firms will bid for this million pound job.

“We also hope that the Highways Agency will go on to soon implement a straightening and widening scheme between Greenodd and Rusland Pool on the A590 so that the whole of this dangerous winding stretch of the A590 is improved quickly.”

Furness Enterprise says companies surveyed also want to see an Ulverston bypass built and a crawler lane for heavy trucks added to the A590 between Newby Bridge and the High Newton bypass.

Liberal Democrat Cumbria County Councillor Janet Willis, who runs Greenodd Village Store, said: “The Lib Dems did a lot of campaigning to get the roundabout. It is something the residents of Greenodd were absolutely desperate for.”

She said residents should now be able to see the plans for the roundabout layout and give feedback to the Highways Agency and to the Mouchel Amey company responsible for maintaining A-roads in Cumbria.

Cllr Willis added: “People will be definitely glad it is going ahead because there have been so many accidents there. Traffic management there has changed several times over the years. It was difficult for tourists because they did not know what they were supposed to do there and that has been part of the problem. It is good it is actually beginning to happen.”

One person died and 34 suffered injuries at the junction between 2003 and 2007.

Rowland Saunders, a director of ME Saunders and Sons haulage firm based in Sparkbridge, welcomed the news.

He said: “When they first built the Greenodd bypass my father and my uncle told them there should be a roundabout there.

“Obviously they didn’t take any notice until now, about 30 years later.

“Its a good thing because it will slow down traffic on the A590 and it will cut the accidents down.”

The roundabout should be completed by June next year.