John Lewis building teams "working late into night"

As staff were putting the final touches to displays inside the impressive new John Lewis bulding, outside was a different matter entirely.

With little over two days to go until opening, the area still resembles a building site where the pavements are being widened to make it much easier for pedestrians to cross between High Street and Sidwell Street.

As the rain poured down yesterday an army of contractors wearing flourescent jackets were working hard to complete the job on time. John Harvey, the city centre manager, confirmed they would be working late into the night to ensure the are outside the store would be finished in time.

"The paving, tree planting and street furniture will be completed at the John Lewis entrance on Sidwell Street by the time the store opens on Friday," he said. "For the moment we are some way shy of that and there is still a lot of work to be done. But by 9am on Friday, the paving will be complete.

"There is plenty of space for the significant number of people we are expecting at the store on Friday morning and there is nothing outside the store which will cause any difficulties for anyone as far as that is concerned. People are working late into the night to make sure we deliver on that pledge.

"Clearly there have been some late challenges which have resulted from the interface between the paving work and utilities, and dealing with the significance of buried services underneath the paved area. That has been challenging and of course at the same time the John Lewis contractors need to complete their work and we have also had to maintain access for residents, shops and businesses.

"It has been an extraordinarily difficult site to work with. Barden, the council's contrators, have done a really good job under very difficult circumstances. And there will be some final parts of the scheme - paving at the junction of New North Road and Longbrook Street, commissioning of traffic lights - some of that will only be completed by the end of October."

There will also be new bus shelters and a high quality taxi rank delivered later this autumn, while a cycle contraflow will be provided to allow cyclists to travel from New North Road into Sidwell Street, Paris Street and the High Street.