FRUSTRATED drivers will have to wait until at least April before work on one of the North-East's busiest roads is complete.

Traffic on the A167, the former Great North Road, through Chilton, County Durham, has been held up by road works for the past two months.

Work on improving the water mains in the village was due to have finished at the end of February. However, technical problems have knocked back the completion date to the start of April.

Andrew Panting, spokesman for Northumbrian Water, said yesterday that the cast iron mains were decades old, had problems with rust, and were brittle.

Because the pipe network in Chilton has deteriorated so much, they were having to be replaced with plastic.

Mr Panting said: "There were local rumours that once we've finished this part, we were going to go up the other side of the road.

"We are, but only as far as New South View, and then we turn right."

He added: "Basically, it's to provide a better water supply to Chilton.

"We have to have the traffic lights because we have to work where the water main is, and water mains are in roads.

"We try and cause as little disruption as possible, but this is just one of the things we just can't avoid.