Drivers in Swadlincote, Derbyshire, will face travel delays this week as a main road connecting the town to the motorway and airport is subject to overnight closures for maintenance. National Highways is closing the A453 overnight from 6 February 2026 until 11 February 2026 (see National Highways East Midlands maintenance schemes).
The closures will take place overnight between 8:00 pm and 6:00 am to allow workers to install new energy‑efficient street lights and to resurface the carriageway. The road will remain open during the day, but physical barriers are often only removed at 06:00, which can cause tail‑end congestion for early‑morning traffic.
The stretch being worked on sits between the Finger Farm roundabout (the A42/A50 interchange) and Junction 24 of the M1. People travelling to East Midlands Airport or the motorway from Swadlincote are being advised to leave extra time, as diversions could add up to 20–30 minutes to their journeys.
According to the official traffic map (One.Network), signed diversions will guide drivers. Light vehicles are being advised to use the A50/A42 link, while heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) will be directed via M1 Junction 23a.
The work is part of a larger National Highways project to upgrade roadside lighting across the Midlands — the Midlands LED Roadside Lighting Scheme — replacing older lamps with LEDs to reduce energy use and improve night‑time visibility.
