Work on West Clyde Street and Colquhoun Street South is to be finished today (November 22) — just in time for the start of this year’s Winter Festival.

Two-way traffic is to reinstated on West Clyde street but some finishing touches to light fittings and power supply will take place in early 2014.

The original 18 week project was expected to finish in mid September and is now more than two months over-run at 28 weeks.

The whole CHORD project for the town was calculated to last 60 weeks in total, this includes work on Sinclair Street, West and East Princes Street, Colquhoun Square as well as West Clyde Street and the Esplanade.

Despite being 10 weeks later than planned, residents can finally see the town return to normal in time for the busy Christmas period.

A spokeswoman for Argyll and Bute Council confirmed today work will be finished tomorrow.

She added: “The contractor will have substantially completed works on Phase 1A by November 21 with the return of two way traffic on West Clyde Street returning to normal on Friday, November 22.

“The lighting column fitments and power supply, and completion of pends in Colquhoun Street South along with snagging/defects works will be undertaken early in the New Year.” Contractors MacLay Civil Engineering released information to sea front businesses via a newsletter on Thursday and the Advertiser was given a copy.

Drew Dunion, project manager for MacLay said: “The major road works have had minimal disruption to traffic operations and it was a welcome sight to see vehicles using the lay-bys once again.

“A small section of footway remains to be completed at the eastern end of West Clyde Street where we tie to Sinclair Street.

“There will be a small section of tar left in the footpath. This is done to accommodate the change between new and old footpath levels.

“Street signage, new bins and cycle stand, along with the white lining will complete West Clyde Street.

“During this period we have continued to plane out the existing road and reconstruct the new road surfacing to the new profile.

“This involved transferring the traffic onto various lanes to gain access to work area and maintain traffic flow.

“And there have been minor delays as a result of additional anti flood works introduced but this will be completed this week.” Work on the Esplanade (Phase 1B) is still in progress, the first section of granite seating wall blocks have been installed from the Henry Bell monument as far as the public toilets.

More blocks for the western end are now arriving and should be installed this week — this work will continue into the New Year with the staircases and concrete works with final landscaping and play areas following on.

Councillor Gary Mulvaney, chair of the Winter Festival, told the Advertiser it has been a difficult year for retailers but hopes the Winter Festival will spread some Christmaas cheer.

He added: “It looks likely that the majority of work on West Clyde Street, other than some minor snaggings will be finished for the Winter Festival to begin on Friday night.

“It has been an incredibly difficult year for all those retailers, specially those directly affected by the work on their doorstep, so I genuinely hope that Helensburgh turns out in force to support their local shops and traders.” Dawn Perry, from Acorn Art on West Clyde Street, is looking forward to the work finishing today and is pleased to have pavements in place in time for the Winter Festival and busy Christmas period.

She continued: “Hopefully Helensburgh will have a buzz again, it has been a difficult time and I know we are not out of the woods yet with work to starts on phase two but at least we get a break over Christmaas.” Councillor Vivien Dance also welcomes the news the sea front will be open for business again.

She said: “The conclusion of the first part of the seafront project in time for the Santa parade this Friday will be welcomed by all I am sure and this will give the town a great boost as the Christmas lights go on. “It is time to start enjoying the improvement to our town and talk ourselves up, we now have a lot to offer as a town including the best Christmas lights in the west. “A good sign of the Christmas spirit coming to Helensburgh would be if we could stop talking the town down and recognise we are on the move and enjoy the significant improvement to our town centre.” MacLay are seeking views from those directly affect by the first phase of works — retailers, other businesses and local resident — and a questionnaire asking for feedback on performance, things that the company got right and to identify ways performance could be improved. This is due to be issued at a later date.