THE main section of the new Furthergate Link Road between Blackburn town centre and Burnley Road is open to traffic.

The flow of vehicles along the new highway, linking to the M65 Whitebirk roundabout, has been hailed by borough regeneration boss, Cllr Phil Riley, as a ‘major step’ towards the completion of the project.

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But he said the £4.8million Furthergate scheme, originally due to take until Autumn 2015 and last scheduled to finish at Easter, would not be completed until later this summer.

It is a key part of the £40m Pennine Reach Scheme to speed buses and motorists between Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn.

Blackburn traders boss Tony Duckworth and borough Liberal Democrat leader, Cllr David Foster, welcomed the opening of the half-mile long road, but questioned the repeated delays to the project.

The new highway opened mid-morning on Monday while the top of Burnley Road from Gorse Street to Accrington Road lights is closed, with access maintained to Burnley Close.

A mini-roundabout has been installed at the Furthergate link road junction while traffic signals are commissioned avoiding the need for temporary signals causing huge delays.

Traffic is flowing feely between Audley Range and Eden Street. Further changes will be implemented next week for works at the junction of Burnley Road and Gorse Street which may require temporary signals.

Higher Audley Street has been closed on safety grounds after a leak was discovered washing out materials underneath the road.

Cllr Riley said: “This is major step towards the completion of the overall Furthergate scheme which has suffered repeated problems with uncharted utility cables and pipes causing delays.

“I now expect the whole scheme to be completed and the road works, cones and temporary signals off by later this summer.”

Blackburn and District Chamber of Trade president, Mr Duckworth, said: “This is excellent news but once again, as with the bus station, we have had repeated delays.

“Proper investigatory work should have identified these pipes and cables.”

Cllr Foster said: “This is good news. I just hope work now finally goes smoothly to complete this vital scheme in weeks not months.”

Cllr Riley revealed that a bid for up to £2m to fill in the ‘missing link’ down to the Red Lion roundabout, shelved during a price war with Tesco over 200 square metres of land, had been submitted to the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership.