A bypass has been long-awaited in the village of Lamberhurst

Construction teams working on the long-awaited A21 Lamberhurst bypass are moving a river.

The diversion of the River Teise is vital to the construction of the road in Kent, which is due to be completed by autumn 2004.

Workers have used a combination of a sandbag dam and earth excavation to set the river on its new course.

Project manager Graham Link said: "We have cut a new channel alongside the existing river channel, leaving a plug of earth at the upstream end where the water is.

'A slow, controlled manner'

"Then we'll gradually remove that plug of earth so that the water from the river goes into the new channel and out of the bottom end in a slow, controlled manner."

He added: "It's a permanent diversion.

"The bypass crosses the existing line of the river at rather an acute angle and that would make it very difficult, and not a little bit expensive, for us to build a bridge over the river.

"What we are doing is diverting the river so it goes underneath the line of the bypass at a right angle."

The work is part of improvements to the A21 from Pembury to Hastings.