Residents of a York suburb were today facing up to weeks of disruption from gas maintenance work - only months after the last bout of major roadworks.

People living in the Heworth Green area say their lives were made a misery when the new Malton Road junction roundabout was put in.

Long periods of noise and large traffic queues were a daily feature, they said.

Now, part of the new roundabout is to be ripped up so Transco can put new gas pipes in.

They will be working on a 100m stretch of Heworth Green which runs straight through the roundabout.

The work was due to start today and is scheduled to finish in six weeks' time.

Transco were criticised for not doing the work when the new roundabout was being built.

The company apologised to residents and said it was not needed at that time.

Spokesman James Ruane says everything possible will be done to keep disruption down.

He said: "The latest engineering techniques will be used so they do not have to excavate the whole area. This will minimise disruption.

"The problem is that three junctions come into that roundabout meaning it is heavy with traffic. With that in mind we have employed a company to manage the traffic throughout the project and keep things moving as smoothly as possible."

Updated: 11:47 Tuesday, June 26, 2001