THE closure of one of Worcester's key routes into the city is expected to cause long tailbacks next month, as work begins on a long-awaited £20 million regeneration project.

Tolladine Road will be shut for nine days in February as developers begin to transform the former Tolladine Goods Yard, near Shrub Hill Station, into a thriving new business park.

Regeneration company St Modwen Properties revealed yesterday that work on the new 23-acre Great Western Business Park, which is expected to create hundreds of new jobs, has already been briefly held up by the unlikeliest of sources - an unexpected colony of worms.

"Bringing this site forward for development has been a real challenge," St Modwen's Julie Rossiter said. "We've had to create a new habitat on-site for the translocation of slow worms, which had established a home on part of the site."

With the worms now happily rehoused, the next stage of the development will involve the removal of a disused railway bridge over Tolladine Road, forcing the road's closure between Sherriff Street and Station Walk from Saturday, February 16, until Sunday, February 24.

Diversions will be in place along Sherriff Street and on to Newtown Road.

The bridge will then be sliced into sections and removed by crane.

"We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause," Ms Rossiter said. "But the redevelopment of this site will lead to substantial economic benefits for the city."

The former goods yard was once an important centre for passenger and freight railway activity, housing locomotive works and engine sheds. It was shut off with the end of steam in the mid-1960s, and has lain derelict for many years.

Now believed to be Worcester's largest derelict brownfield site, the yard was purchased by St Modwen for £3.5 million in 2006.

The company had a planning application approved last summer and expects to build seven main industrial units on the site, each of which can be divided into smaller blocks if necessary.

St Modwen has vowed to incorporate some of the site's rich heritage within its ambitious plans.

"The historical importance of the old workshops has been replicated in the final design and construction of parts of the new development," Ms Rossiter said.

"We are using modern day construction techniques together with reclaimed materials from the site which reflect the design and quality of the original buildings."

The first phase of the development should see units available to rent as early as September.

Further phases will be completed over the next 18 months. It is not yet known which businesses will be housed on the site.