MOTORISTS who use one of the main roads into Bolton town centre are set for months of traffic misery after work scheduled to last eight weeks hit delays.

United Utilities began a £300,000 sewer improvement scheme near the junction of Chorley Old Road and Park Street in February.

Since work began motorists have found themselves caught in huge traffic jams, especially at peak times of the day, with queues backing up towards the town centre.

The scheme was due to be completed by the end of this week. But workmen hit a snag when they found the ground was harder than they expected, and now say it will take a further three months to finish work.

A spokesman for United Utilities said: "We are very sorry for any extra disruption this causes people, but it has taken us longer we planned to dig under Chorley Old Road.

"This is because the ground conditions were much tougher than we expected.

"Our completion dates are always estimates because we simply do not know what we will find under the surface until we have dug down.

"In this case, we were having to cut through rock where we thought it would just be soil.

"We have the maximum number of engineers allowed working on the project to get it completed as soon as possible."

The work will help sewers cope with heavy rainfall and avoid flooding of roads and house cellars.

The problem has increased over recent years as more properties have been built and connected to the original sewers. The new sewers will be built next to the existing ones and will be larger and made of concrete rather than clay.