AN investigation is due to be launched into the road surface noise created by one of the region’s busiest stretches of dual carriageway.

The survey, which will be carried out by the Highways Agency, will monitor the surface noise created by the A419. The investigation will start this month and is due to be completed by March 2013.

Chairman of Noise Action Group and Cotswold district councillor (Churn Valley) Paul Hodgkinson said he hoped the investigation would bring positive results. “The issue has been rumbling on for years and nothing has been done,” he said.

He added the road surface noise had a detrimental impact on communities along the A419, from Latton and Cerney Wick to Cirencester. “Some residents have complained of not being able to sleep because of the noise,” he said.

The dual carriageway was constructed in 1998 and although some areas are made from tarmac, other stretches are made from concrete, which produces more noise due to grooves in the surface.

Janet Sharpe, who lives in Latton, said she would like the road to be resurfaced. “The noise levels are disruptive to people’s lives in Latton and many other villages along the length of the road,” she said.

Wiltshire councillor Peter Colmer said the noise had made some residents’ lives a misery. “People can’t even sit outside and enjoy their gardens because of the constant noise from the road,” he said.

“One of my constituents has been ill from stress because the noise has prevented him from sleeping,” he added.

A spokesman from the Highways Agency said Latton had been designated an “important area” and the investigation would identify which noise mitigation measures could be installed in the future.

He added the Road Management Services Gloucester had no plans to resurface the concrete dual carriageway at Latton in the near future, but noise reduction measures could be introduced by 2020.