A £3.5 million road upgrade will create smoother journeys for drivers - and for bees.

Roads engineers have joined forces with environmental experts to ensure the road is better for human commuters and the verges more attractive for insects to buzz around in.

Highways England and Cumbria Wildlife Trust are working on the project, with the work to boost bees and the likes initially concentrated on a 6.5-mile stretch between Workington and Papcastle.

Project manager Heather Ashurst, from Highways England, said: “This is one of the biggest packages of improvement and maintenance work we have ever delivered in this part of Cumbria. It represents an important investment in tackling congestion and providing safer, smoother journeys in a very busy part of our road network serving key towns like Cockermouth, Workington, Whitehaven and major employment centres like Sellafield.”

The package includes a £1.5 million A595/A66 Fitz roundabout improvement near Papcastle and a £1.25 million widening of the A66/A595 junction at Great Clifton.

They say both projects will be paid for from a national £220 million fund to tackle congestion ‘hotspots’, £27 million of which is dedicated to schemes in the North West.

Work to prepare for these improvements is already underway, with works expected to take a further 12 weeks.

The biodiversity work is part of the company's commitment to enhancing road network environments and reducing the impact of traffic on habitats and communities.

They are supporting Cumbria Local Nature Partnership’s Get Cumbria Buzzing! project, delivered by Cumbria Wildlife Trust, along the A590 and other sections of the A66, to create habitats that provide food, shelter and nesting sites for bees and other pollinators.

Get Cumbria Buzzing! project manager, Tanya St Pierre said: “We are delighted. This work will provide much-needed pollinator-friendly havens and wildflower-rich corridors, enabling our bumblebees, butterflies and hoverflies to move more freely across north West Cumbria.

"Working together with Highways England we’ll be creating short flowering lawns, flower rich grassland, sunny banks and glades, and overwintering refuges, helping our pollinators to survive and thrive.”