Work to duall the A11 which began last year will take a three month break from April.

Preliminary work on the long-awaited dualling between Thetford and Barton Mills began in October by upgrading an access road for heavy vehicles at the Elveden Estate.

This had been accelerated to ensure main construction work to widen the last nine-mile stretch of the A11 between Thetford and Barton Mills started on schedule in 2012/2013.

It will now pause between April and July as funding for the current financial year has been used up, and to allow minimum disruption at the estate during harvesting.

Work to upgrade the final track will continue in the autumn. Environmental works will begin in June.

A Highways Agency spokesman stressed the break would not affect the overall time frame of works, due to be completed in 2014/15.

Highways Agency project manager, Robert Gibson, said: 'Before we started work in October last year we made it clear that we would complete as much work as possible by March 2012, and any work left to do would re-start in the autumn when the harvest is complete.

'The Highways Agency's project team has worked alongside the Elveden Estate since work began to give them weekly updates on progress and to ensure that any disruption to the estate and its farming operations is kept at an absolute minimum.'

Research by the then East of England Development Agency two years ago showed the scheme would save �690m in lost time when completed.