The Newtown bypass will be open 'within the next two months' according to the Welsh Government.

But despite giving its clearest indication as to when the new road will open, government project officers are remaining tight-lipped on a specific date.

The £90 million construction, which has taken almost three years to build, is due to open in early 2019, and a spokesman for the government said they were "confident that the Newtown Bypass would be open to traffic within the next two months providing no unforeseen issues arise within this time period".

Residents and visitors to Mid-Wales can now see the road is tantilisingly close to being completed, with road markings and signs now up and in many places along the route.

And in his most recent update, Project Manager Nick Cleary said workers would be working on weekends to ensure the road was opened as quickly as possible, with the project still on schedule for it's completion date.

"We have continued to make good progress and are still on programme for completion in Early 2019. The bypass is really beginning to come

together now as we near completion of the project," he said.

"The bridges are now complete and the surfacing has continued at a pace. We have now nearly 90% of the surfacing laid and there are also significant areas of the bypass with the road markings, barriers, signs and lighting completed.

"We still have a significant amount of work to complete at Pool Road and Dolfor Road but this is progressing well. These areas were always due to

be carried out during the latter stages of the project due to the constraints in these areas. As the weather has become more unsettled, we will be working most weekends now to mitigate its impact and ensure that the bypass is open to traffic as soon as possible."

Contractors Alun Griffiths Construction also revealed that almost 90,000 plants and 195 trees have been planted as part of visual and noise mitigation works, as well as over 6km of hedgerows.

"We have used new and innovative techniques such as the noise fencing installed on parts of the bypass, which has been made using approximately 9.6 million recycled plastic bottle tops," a spokesperson added.

"The bypass has been designed to cope with major flood events both now and in the future and has the same capacity to store flood water as 5 Olympic swimming pools."