WORKERS carrying out vital resurfacing work on Gillygate in York are ahead of schedule, paving the way for the road to be re-opened to traffic today.

The first phase of work has been completed early, enabling the road to remain open throughout today and the weekend before closing again, as planned, at 8am on Monday for the second phase.

Businesses welcomed the news, which will bring back passing trade, but bus company First warned that its diversion will remain in place to avoid confusion.

Ray Caplin, council head of engineering consultancy, said: "The weather conditions have not worked against us too much and the first week of work has gone even better than we could have hoped for.

"This has meant that the first phase of the work has taken less time than it might have done, so the road will be open to traffic.

"All diverted bus services will continue to use the alternative routes on Friday as we don't want to make changes at this late stage that will cause confusion and inconvenience for travellers."

Gillygate will be shut again to traffic, between 8am and 6pm, from Monday to Friday next week.

Neil Thomson, of Shine, in Gillygate, said Thursday morning had been "very busy".

"We know customers have seen articles in the Press and realised shops needed support."

He said it was "great" that Gillygate was re-opening today.

"The workers looked like they had finished work yesterday by 11am. There was no-one around.

"But when they were padding the road down with the new surface, literally all the jewellery in our shop fell off the shelves. I know it was an isolated incident and they had to do it, but it was labour intensive to put everything back."

First commercial manager Peter Edwards said the decision to allow traffic back into Gillygate had posed a dilemma.

"The diversion has been in place since Monday and we have notified our customers that it is on for five days, so we are continuing with that today."

A York Hospitals NHS Trust spokeswoman said: "Traffic was quite heavy yesterday, but we are coping well. It is a concerted effort - involving trust staff working hard with the full support of the city council and police to manage the increased traffic in Wigginton Road. At certain times this has delayed access to York Hospital.

"Emergency blue light ambulances continue to gain access to York Hospital from the Clifton side of the city having been re-routed through Bootham Park Hospital, thus avoiding Gillygate.

"Part of this coping well is thanks to drivers who have taken advice, and patients who have allowed extra time when setting off for their appointments."

Updated: 10:13 Friday, November 04, 2005