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Months after "temporary" traffic lights were installed at the junction of Liverpool Road and Cop Lane, engineers say they are ready to turn them off at long last.

The busy crossroads is set to return to normal in the coming days - something drivers were promised two weeks ago.

A snag connecting up the new permanent lights to the electricity supply has been ironed out and County Hall bosses say they just need last minute checks before switch on.

'Cone City' as Penwortham waits for its new lights to be switched on.

"We have received regular updates from the contractor which is delivering these highway improvements on behalf of Tesco about the issues which have been experienced with connecting the new traffic lights to the electricity network," an LCC spokesman told the Post today.

"There has been an ongoing issue with a mains electricity cable requiring further work to be coordinated with the electricity provider. However this was resolved earlier this week and the new lights are now connected to the electricity network.

"The contractor is now working to schedule the final task needed to get the new traffic signals up and running, which requires the company which provides the traffic lights to visit the site to programme and test the signals."

The lights issues have been part of a redesign of the Liverpool Road, Cop Lane intersection, which also incorporates a new junction for traffic entering and leaving the Tesco store which opened at the end of January.

Drivers have been caught up in traffic queues for months.

Roadworks were completed in April, but the temporary lights remained in place, causing long delays for traffic using the junction and also for customers trying to leave the Tesco site.

It was reported at one stage that the wait was down to a special part which the contractors were importing from the EU.

But that has now been dismissed, with engineers saying a problem coupling up the lights with the mains network has been the issue all along.

County Hall said two weeks ago that it expected the issue to be resolved within two or three days, but motorists are still waiting.

Penwortham Tesco traffic lights set for big switch on . . . well almost