Local people can now get a clearer idea of how the £47.9 million Bingley Relief Road scheme is taking shape.

A temporary stretch of road redirects the A650 closer to the Ramada Jarvis Bankfield Hotel while the permanent stretch of road to the roundabout from Shipley is built between the two temporary sections.

The makeshift sections will then be landscaped as the work is completed.

Charly Clark, senior project manager for construction company Amec, said: "Our contract requires us to maintain traffic in both directions at all times. We can't stop the traffic flow and reduce it to one-way."

One of the biggest delays in the roundabout construction has been for diverting electricity and phone cables. He said: "We had to divert all of those services around the new road alignment before we could do anything."

At the other end of the road at Crossflatts, services have also been diverted and Keighley Road bridge has been widened. One of the biggest mobile cranes in the country was used to lower the specially-made 13-metre-wide span into place last July.

Now the construction of the five-kilometre long, two-lane dual carriageway from Crossflatts to Cottingley Bar is entering its final stages and should be open by Autumn this year.

About 85 per cent of the work is done, with around 60 per cent of the new road finished except for the final top surface. This will not be laid until a month before the carriageway opens to save wear and tear from construction traffic.