COMMUTERS and motorists have welcomed the opening of a third lane on a major road through Teesside.

The £70 million A19 upgrade has been underway since March of last year and is set to be fully complete by the end of Autumn.

The work is being done to expand the road to three lanes in both directions as well as resurfacing work.

The road became a bottleneck for commuters since work began as traffic was filtered into two lanes at 50 miles per hour.

Lanes on both sides were used as contraflow lanes and traffic occasionally backed up causing tailbacks.

Although work is still continuing, the northbound section of the road towards the Hartlepool junction with the A689 has now opened to three lanes as the nears completion.

This means traffic can flow more freely on the road once more with less queues likely.

Keep up to date with all the latest news on our website, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

You can also follow our dedicated Teesside Facebook page for all the latest in the area by clicking here.

For all the top news updates from right across the region straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.

Have you got a story for us? Contact our newsdesk on newsdesk@nne.co.uk or contact 01325 505054