RUSH hour traffic hell for motorists driving through Rishton will end soon, it was claimed.

Commuters, parents on the school run and public transport users have been forced to endure lengthy delays for several months.

Every morning and night, traffic has queued from the Eachill junction all the way down High Street to the Leeds Liverpool Canal while upgrades were made as part of the multi-million pound Pennine Reach Scheme.

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Today the road resurfacing work is due to be completed, and local councillor Ken Moss said: “Completion is imminent.”

Cllr Moss said: “There have been a few legal wrangles that held it all up to start with, and a few snags that happened while they were working on it, so it has taken longer than it should have done.

“Unfortunately, these things take as long as they take.

“But by and large, residents have been very patient.”

He added: “Workers are resurfacing the road this week and then they will do other work after, but the bulk of it is done.

“There will be lighting and pedestrianisation, but the bulk is done.”

Cllr Moss said traffic had been worse during rush hour, and said he could understand drivers’ frustration.

“I come home through it every day and there has been a five or 10 minute delay.

“It’s frustrating and it’s compounded with works that are going on elsewhere, but in Rishton people have coped quite well all things considered.”

Last July, the council announced work at the junction, which links Blackburn Road, Harwood Road, and High Street, had been delayed for at least six months.

The delay was blamed on a legal issue between the county council and housing association Hyndburn Homes, which owned a strip of land that was used for widening the road.

The work finally got underway on Monday, February 16, with residents warned of ‘heavy traffic’.

It included minor road widening to improve the left turn from Harwood Road to High Street, the resurfacing of the road at the junction, and relocation of the southbound bus stop on Blackburn Road to move it further away from the junction. Contracts manager for the county council, George Brockbank, said: “We’re expecting the work on this junction to take around another two weeks as long as the weather is not too wet, as some of the work to come is weather-dependent.

“The resurfacing we’re doing at the moment should be complete by Tuesday evening, with line-marking and anti-skid surfacing due to be finished by the end of next week. It will then take around another ten days to install the new traffic signals.

“We’re running a couple of weeks later than originally scheduled as some of the team also work on the gritting crews and have had to prioritise that activity when necessary. We’re grateful for people’s patience.”