TARMAC is now being laid on the final missing section of the delayed Furthergate link road scheme in Blackburn.

The 600-yard section of the £4.8million link road is due to be complete by early summer at the latest.

Work started last year and so far kerbing, street lighting and a new roundabout are nearly complete.

Road rollers are in action as the tarmac goes down on the final section of the highway between Burnley Road and Tesco’s Hill Street store.

Coned lane closures and carriageway re-routing on the current main route from the Whitebirk Junction 6 of the M65 remain in place while the final stages of construction proceed. Gorse Street remains closed.

Landscaping on Esther Street is also under way.

The construction of the new £4.8million highway, bypassing Burnley Road, was halted in 2016 because of a row between the council and Tesco over a small piece of land off Gorse Street on the car park of the chain’s Hill Street store.

The link road will connect the no-stopping ‘red route’ along Bottomgate and Copy Nook into Blackburn town centre with the Red Lion Roundabout,

Cllr Phil Riley, Blackburn with Darwen Council highways boss, said: “Tarmac is not being laid and the street lighting is largely in place.

"Everything is still, on schedule for opening the new road in early summer.

"We are cracking on."