CONSTRUCTION workers had to cope with harsh winter weather during the building of the new Edenfield by-pass in 1968.

These pictures from the archives show a new bridge across the river emerging for the new dual carriageway which ultimately would link up with the M65 and M66 and allow traffic from East Lancashire convenient access into Manchester.

These photos show the birth of a by-pass as seen from Haslingden Old Road and from Manchester Road, Haslingden.

The scheme was one of the first main road building projects in East Lancashire which would undergo something of a road building boom as more and more families owned cars and the demand for improved transport links to the rest of the country grew.