A FAMOUS bus will be the first vehicle to set wheel on a newly reconstructed road today.

The vintage vehicle used in the Heartbeat series will help to launch the Loftus Bank road when work on it is completed nine days ahead of schedule.

It will stop three-quarters of the way up the Bank to allow Dr Ashok Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, to unveil a new Loftus boundary sign.

The bus will then carry on to Loftus Town Hall, where its passengers will view an exhibition and video of the reconstruction work.

Designed to mark the end of one of Redcar and Cleveland's most complex engineering contracts, the bus trip and exhibition will trace the saga back to the landslip, which caused major damage last year and triggered the £3m project.

The exhibition will be opened by David Walsh, the leader of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, the Mayor, Eric Jackson and the town's Miss Millennium, schoolgirl Natalie Johnson.

Members of the community are invited to go along and drink tea while viewing the exhibition and an accompanying 20-minute video, being shown between 1.30pm and 4.30pm.

Councillor Sylvia Szintai, the council's lead member for Environment and Infrastructure, said: "I think Friday marks the end of a very difficult job that's been very well done.

"We know only too well the problems the Bank's closure has caused and we would not wish those difficulties on anyone. But this work has been absolutely essential for the road's long-term future.

"We have all waited a long time for this day and I like to think there can be an element of celebration.