WORK has finally started on a £500m flagship redevelopment scheme in the North-East.

After years of false starts, plans and wrangles, work has started on the Middlehaven site, opening up Middlesbrough's dockland for development.

The work, which began yesterday, was the start of a £7.3m contract to build an A66 interchange to provide access to Middlehaven.

Joe Docherty, the chief executive of Tees Valley Regeneration, the urban regeneration company leading the project, said: "The importance of the start of work at Middlehaven should not be understated -today is the day the talking stops and the doing starts.

"Seeing activity on the site is the prelude to the most ambitious, significant and exciting development Middlesbrough has seen for many decades.

"The buildings at Middlehaven will not appear overnight, but the sight of men at work is a fulfilment of a commitment made by Tees Valley Regeneration."

The organisation said the scheme would also improve traffic flow into the town and would be completed in just under a year.

One of the priorities set by Middlesbrough Council and development partner Tees Valley Regeneration was to minimise the number of lane closures on the A66, Shepherdson Way and Borough Road.

Balfour Beatty won the contract after developing a diversion scheme that addressed these strict requirements.

The interchange will replace the North Ormesby roundabout, which serves the Riverside Stadium.

Mr Docherty said: "The awarding of this contract is another milestone in the process that will see Middlehaven become a reality.

"This junction will provide a much-needed access to this key site which, as previously reported, is attracting significant developer interest."

Leading European architect Will Alsop has drawn up groundbreaking designs for the site, which is the size of 250 football pitches and could create 3,000 jobs.

Other features of the scheme include 2,400 homes built over 20 years, 800,000sq ft of office and commercial developments and about 500,000sq ft of leisure developments.

When the plan was unveiled earlier this year, Mr Docherty said: "I know that Middlehaven has had more launches than Cape Canaveral, but this is not just talk."