The final beam of Bingley relief road's biggest bridge-frame has been dramatically lifted into place.

The last piece - a 62-tonne girder - of the £3-million steel structure was hoisted by a 100,000-tonne telescopic Liebherr crane to bridge the gap over the River Aire by the Ramada Jarvis Bankfield Hotel in Cottingley.

At 264-metres long, the bridge is ahead of schedule and is expected to be finished by late March or early April next year.

Charly Clark, project manager for Amec, the contractors building the £47.9 million road, said he was delighted with how the project was progressing.

"We are very pleased to have reached another landmark and once this section is complete we will have access right along the route," he said.

"It's not a complicated part of the route but it's very impressive to look at."

The work on the Cottingley viaduct is being done by sub-contractors Fairfield Mabey constructural engineers of Thepstow, South Wales.

Erection manager John Gildunn said: "The next stage is to weld smaller girders in place between the major girders before concrete planks will be placed on top by Amec to create the road deck."

Another section which is steaming ahead is at the South Bog where a jetty is being used to build the road across the bog - a site of special specific interest.

At Crossflatts, seven to eight metres of blacktop was laid and this part will link with the roundabout at the Keighley bypass.

By November more Tarmac will be laid at various sections along the two-mile route from Crossflatts to the Ramada Jarvis Hotel, where the roundabout is already being built.

The Britannia Bridge closed at the weekend to allow workers to demolish it and replace it with a steel footbridge which will be a similar design to the new Ferncliffe Road bridge.

The canal at this section will also close again in November to allow further work on the town's major junction with the road.