Commuters who have suffered months of traffic misery due to roadworks in Stafford will have to wait at least another two weeks before the scheme is completed.

Work on Doxey Bridge was due to be finished yesterday but delays have pushed the date back to December 8 at the earliest.

The £400,000 project to replace the bridge started in September and was scheduled to take two months.

The stretch of Doxey Road over Doxey Brook has been closed while work is carried out, causing major disruption for residents and commuters who usually travel via Doxey into and out of Stafford from outlying areas.

People have been forced to take lengthy detours to avoid the road closure, causing severe congestion on the alternative routes into town.

The closure has affected stretches of the road for 30 metres either side of the bridge, with traffic being diverted down routes including the A518, Derrington Lane, Castle View, Billington Lane, Blackhole Lane, Long Lane and Aston Hill.

Drivers were looking forward with relief to the end of the scheme and the re-opening of the road today.

But Staffordshire County Council spokeswoman Michelle Hunt said the road would have to remain closed as work had not yet been completed.

She said: “The team working at Doxey has pulled out all the stops to ensure that the road will be open as soon as possible. The estimated date for re-opening the road is now December 8.

“The project started slightly later than was originally planned due to an unavoidable delay with work that Severn Trent was carrying out in the area at the time. Heavy rainfall also led water levels at Doxey Brook to rise, meaning that work on the temporary footpath running alongside the bridge was unable to start on schedule.”

“We would like to thank local residents, traders and commuters for their patience while this vital work is carried out,” she added.

Some residents have questioned how long the scheme has taken, saying the work could have been done in a fraction of the time.

Pensioner George Castell, from Seighford, said the road closure had affected people living all over the Stafford borough. The 78-year-old said: “A lot of people from villages and areas around Stafford usually go through Doxey to get into town.

“Now everyone has to drive miles out of their way to get there. People from Doxey itself have to go all the way round through Derrington and on to the Newport Road.”