A £320,000 road widening scheme at Winkleigh has been welcomed by the parish council which has been campaigning for improvements on the A3124 for a number of years.
The Department of Transport announced this week that £1.6-million is being made available in the current year for local authorities in Devon to enable safety schemes and urgent repairs to roads to be completed quickly.
Chairman of Winkleigh Parish Council John Turner said the road had been reclassified from a B to an A road after pressure from the council.
'I would like to think that we had something to do with this money coming from Central Government because we have been campaigning for some time that something needs to be done,' he said.
'This road is the main route to Exeter and is used by heavy goods lorries which currently do not have enough room to pass — hence they have been going up onto the grass on the verge.'
The work will include widening a 200-metre stretch of road and resurfacing.
Announcing this latest funding, Minister for Transport John Speller said: 'The financial support will enable local authorities to tackle the most pressing transport problems in their area and to deliver improvements in transport quickly.
'It will allow urgent safety and road improvement works to be given priority by authorities and speed up the progress on a range of large and small scale transport schemes.'