WORK on the final piece in the jigsaw to link East Lancashire to the rest of the country by motorway started at the weekend.

Contractors began putting the finishing touches to the M65 by constructing the stretch between the existing motorway and the 13-mile extension.

The news that phase two of the motorway extension from Riley Green to Whitebirk is near completion comes two and a half years after work started.

Traffic was diverted off the existing motorway on to the new slip road at Whitebirk, Blackburn, to allow the link to be completed.

Project director Bob Jones, of contractors Alfred McAlpine-Amec, said: ''It is a minor switch-over for traffic but a landmark in the job. It is the first connection which will take traffic on and off the new motorway.''

Motorway users can temporarily get on and off on the new slip road at the Whitebirk junction, while the end stretch of the motorway is closed and turned into a two-lane slip road.

The symbolic switch-over is the start of the countdown to the end of a complex operation to rid the M65 of its ''road to nowhere'' tag. The £80 million extension work has used 68,250 cubic metres of concrete, employed 700 workers at its peak and shifted 2.54 million cubic metres of earth.

Mr Jones said apart from the linking the two stretches, work still needed to be done on laying certain parts of the road surface and installing signs, lighting and communications.

He refused to give a completion date but said everything was on course and the motorway was expected to be finished by the ''back end of the year''.

The project's resident engineer Michael Clunas said it was difficult to set a completion date because it could be affected by many factors.

''Weather can play a part. It must be remembered it is basically like making something with natural materials in a factory without a roof. It is open to the elements,'' he said.

He works for Howard Humphreys & Partners Ltd and has been involved in the scheme's design and supervision of its construction.

Mr Clunas was involved in the initial design of the motorway back in 1972 and believes the weekend switch-over is long awaited.

"It is the missing link of the M65 which will connect the motorway to the M6.

"It has to be good news for businesses and residents in East Lancashire,'' he added.

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