BORIS Johnson is sending out his highway hit squad’ over the Bank Holiday weekend to save the hard-pressed motoring public three months of future traffic jams on the A501 Ring Road through East London. The Mayor’s road fixers are taking advantage of the three day lull along Commercial St between Whitechapel and Shoreditch

BORIS Johnson is sending out his 'highway hit squad' over the Bank Holiday weekend to save the hard-pressed motoring public three months of future traffic jams on the A501 Ring Road through East London.

The Mayor's road fixers from Transport for London and the utility companies are taking advantage of the three day lull on the normally-congested Commercial Street between Whitechapel and Shoreditch.

The marathon 72-hour 'dig fest' is part of his bid to get the utility companies like gas and electric to work together, rather than endlessly churning up the same patch time after time.

The team is working day-and-night on 100 different sets of works take place along the stretch running almost a mile through Spitalfields to complete the jobs that would have taken up to 12 weeks in normal weekday conditions with severe traffic disruption.

The northbound carriageway closes from 4am Saturday (August 29) until 5am Tuesday from Whitechapel High Street to Great Eastern Street, with diversions along Whitechapel Road, Cambridge Heath Road, Hackney Road and Shoreditch High Street. Drivers with Local knowledge will probably cut through Vallance Road.

Southbound traffic from Shoreditch to Whitechapel is unaffected.