A £27m (US$41.6m, €31.7m) project, part financed by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), has started with the closure of the road running alongside Stonehenge.

A section of the A344, which is directly next to the stones, will now be dug up and grassed over.

Once the landscaping work is completed in June 2014, visitors will be able to approach and view the monument from Avenue, which was the intended approach by Stonehenge's prehistoric builders according to experts.

The new Stonehenge visitor centre, located 1.5m (2.4km) away from Stonehenge, is set to open in December. The remaining section of road between Airman's Corner and Byway 12 will become the route of a new shuttle service to and from the Stones.

The HLF has contributed £10m (US$15.4m, €11.75m) towards the project with the remainder of funding coming from commercial income, and donations including a sizeable donation from the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Linbury Trust and the Wolfson Foundation.

Work will also start in January 2014 to decommission the existing facilities and remove the current car park, which will also be grassed over with an operational hub installed.