WORK on Chepstow's Old Wye Bridge is set to be completed at the end of December after a catalogue of delays to the project.

The work started on May 5 and was due to take 15 weeks to finish but following delays the completion date was pushed from August to December. The Free Press has previously reported that the work was delayed until early December but now Monmouthshire council have said the work is set to be complete by December 22.

They said the revision of the date is due to recent severe weather but contractors are working weekends in attempt to complete the works by December 22.

A budget of £715,000 has been shelled out equally by Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire councils after the budget for the works were increased from £500,000.

The work includes essential repairs and maintenance painting of the bridge. Other work includes replacement of sheared bolts, design and stitch repairs to cracked cast iron members, corroded rivets and mild steel box beam plates.

The bridge repairs were originally planned to start in the summer of last year but were delayed several times.

Cllr Peter Farley, member for St Mary's, said: "The delays if it's delays is because the nature of the work is difficult to plan precisely. The kind of work they are doing on the bridge it must be in all fairness very difficulty to predetermine it until you start doing the work.

"It's important the work is finished for the bicentenary in 2016 which celebrates 200 years since the opening of the bridge - it is a very unique bridge."

The town is set to celebrate the bridge's bicentenary in the summer. It was opened on July 24, 1816, and was the third largest iron arch road ever built.

A Monmouthshire council spokesman said: "Revising the completion date to 22nd December is due to recent inclement weather. High moisture and humidity levels hamper painting works and also interfere with grit blasting operations, resulting in onsite delays.

"The contractor is working weekends in an attempt to complete the works before 22nd December."