AN Exmoor village will have experienced roadworks for 12 out of 16 months by the time Wessex Water finishes replacing its mains pipes.

A second phase of an £850,000 water mains project in Timberscombe is due to start early in the New Year and take until April to complete.

The village saw nine months of disruption when work first started in January of this year and continued until September.

Wessex Water project chiefs have been working with the parish council and local community to agree a plan to minimise the impact of the next phase by doing it at night.

A spokesperson said: “Teams will begin replacing pipes on the Clouds Steep and A396 Dunster to Timberscombe road to the north from Monday, January 6, in work that is expected to last for up to 16 weeks.

“The company will carry the work out at night, allowing one of the main A road routes through Exmoor to reopen to traffic during the day.”

The A396 will be closed to through traffic just north of Timberscombe between 7pm and 5am from Sundays to Thursdays until the end of April, with a signposted diversion in place, but it will be open under multi-way traffic lights during the day.

Wessex Water design engineer Egidijus Mockevicius said: “Thanks to the patience of the local community and the hard work of our team, the opening phase of this project was completed earlier this autumn.

“Before starting the final part, it was important for us to speak again to local people about the best way to approach it.

“We are grateful to the community, Timberscombe Parish Council, and Somerset Council for playing a full part in these discussions and supporting our measures to try and keep disruption to a minimum wherever possible.

“Their guidance has been crucial to the planning of the project and we believe that carrying the work out at night allows us the best opportunity to finish it as promptly as possible.

“We will also be restricting the noisiest activity, such as road cutting or breaking to between 7 pm to 11 pm, as well as using silent generators for lighting, while acoustic barriers will be placed around areas where pipe bursting and winching operations are taking place.’’

The water company has already written to local customers to confirm the details of the second phase of the project.

The work to boost the water supply is needed because in recent years there have been a number of significant pipe bursts in the system which have caused inconvenience and disruption to customers in the area.

Wessex Water said installing new plastic pipes would improve water quality and make the system more reliable in future.

The company has also unveiled £3.5 billion of new investment proposals in its 2025-2030 business plan in relation to the supply of water across its area to ensure the system can cope with growing demand as a result of population growth and the challenge of climate change.