BLACKBURN’S roadworks misery is set to ease before the Christmas shopping rush.

Borough highways boss Maureen Bateson hopes traffic chaos will take a seasonal holiday as gift hunters pack the town centre.

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Three key bottlenecks on main routes into Blackburn should be freed up by mid-December.

Already gas main work has been completed at Preston New Road near Yew Tree Drive.

National Grid spokeswoman Jeanette Unsworth said similar work on Eanam and Salford where gas main replacement was due to finish at the end of November had overrun into the second week of December.

She explained work had been delayed by the need to ensure traffic management and diversions minimised disruption to motorists using one of the maIn routes into Blackburn from the M65.

United Utilities engineer Dean Oldham said a major sewer repair operation causing traffic light-controlled one-way traffic on the Grane Road near the Duke of Wellington in Haslingden would be finished in two weeks.

He said: “We are very sorry for the impact this work has had on commuters.

“The great news, within the next two weeks we will be packed up and gone.

“While we could have completed this work much quicker if the road had been fully closed, we recognised the severe impact this would have had on everyone.”

Work on a £3 million improvement scheme to Blackburn’s Haslingden Road corridor and M65 Guide roundabout will be scaled down over Christmas.

Although Blackburn town centre faces half-term chaos when Railway Road closes for a week from Monday October 27 to November 3 for resurfacing, by December 7 the one-way flow controlled by traffic signals will be over and two way traffic returned.

Work on the Ewood Gyratory on the A666 Bolton Road to Darwen will continue with special arrangements for Ewood Park match day traffic over the Christmas and New Year fixtures. Work on the Furthergate Link Road will start in late November but as with Ewood will initially be mainly off-highway.

Coun Bateson said: “We hope to ensure that the run up to Christmas is kept disruption free.”