A MULTI-million- pound plan to end gridlock around part of Newport and the M4 will transform one of the city's busiest road networks.

The roundabout at Junction 28 will be replaced with traffic- lights under a £15m scheme.

In its place will come a new road layout, with a large box junction, and vehicle movement controlled by several sets of traffic-lights.

Newport council will submit the plans to the National Assembly this week, and expect to get approval by Christmas. Work should start in autumn 2004 - after the city has hosted the National Eisteddfod - and last 15 to 18 months.

The M4 link junction - the city's western gateway - already has major queues at rush hour, and traffic figures for Newport show the levels are set to continue rising.

City highway chiefs warn that unless something is done, by 2005 the overused system will grind the M4, motorway sliproads, Forge Lane and Cardiff Road to a standstill.

Brian Kemp, head of engineering and construction at the city council, said the remodelling will mean that by 2005 the routes are queue-free. He said: "We wanted to cut down queuing traffic on the junction's entry roads, and improve road safety. The junction has a poor accident record for its size.

"The new design ensures that at any junction a driver has only two choices, which reduces confusion."

The new junction will mark the start of the Southern Distributor Road currently being built, and both are part of a wider 'vision' to improve transport in Newport.

The box junction will have special provisions for buses and for traffic heading to the industrial area around Cleppa Park. The Lloyds bank roundabout at Cleppa Park will be removed.

It will also be landscaped and cater for pedestrians and cyclists. "It's a very complex junction to try and redesign," Mr Kemp said.

Capita Gwent Consultancy looked at 16 options to replace the ageing roundabout, which marked the end of the M4 in the mid-1970s.

Dave Bennett, principal engineer of transport at the consultancy, said: "Six thousand vehicles pass through that roundabout between 8am and 9am. That's an awful lot of traffic.

"It was last expanded in 1994, but it,s been recognised for many years that there's a problem."