It will be a happy new year for Bucks residents blighted by noise from the M40 as engineers prepare to start work on a £3.3 million scheme to install new barriers.

New long-awaited noise-reducing barriers will start to be installed by Highways England from Wednesday, January 3 between junction 3 for Loudwater and Wooburn Moor and junction 5 for Stokenchurch.

Campaigners including the M40 Chiltern Environmental Group (M40CEG) have fought for years on behalf of 25,000 people who live along the motorway corridor for relief from “intolerable” and “needless” noise.

The work will see 380 metres of barriers built in Wooburn Moor North, 315m in Wooburn Moor South, 460m near the Loudwater viaduct, 275m in Flackwell Heath and 515m in Daws Lea.

There will be 275m installed in Booker and 715m in Lane End, while Stokenchurch will benefit from 1,600m of barriers.

Highways England says the barrier will provide “mitigation to hundreds of households living within close proximity to the M40” and the work has been praised by MP David Lidington.

The MP – whose constituency includes Stokenchurch – said: “It is excellent news that the M40 noise barriers have been confirmed and work is due to begin in the new year.

“I am delighted that residents of Stokenchurch will benefit from the noise barriers that they and the M40CEG campaigned so hard for.”

Work will be carried out during a mixture of day and night shifts - day shifts will operate Monday to Saturday between 8am and 5pm and night shifts will operate Monday to Friday between 9pm and 5am.

Engineers will also have to close the hard shoulder during day shifts in a bid to protect workers.

Highways England is also warning drivers that when work is carried out at night, the hard shoulder and lane one will also be shut, while there will be an “occasional” need to close slip roads, with a diversion in place.

At the same time as the noise barrier work is being carried out, electrical and technology maintenance will also take place in a bid to minimise disruption to drivers and residents.

The work is expected to be completed by the end of April.