A meeting of Hills Council's Castle Hill main street upgrade community liaison group last Wednesday heard that while progress on the project had been slower than had been hoped, it should be completed in time for the Christmas shopping period.

The council's manager of infrastructure projects, Ken Willimott, said the decision to close the road rested with the RTA, which had yet to approve it.

The western half of Old Northern Road has been closed to traffic for several weeks, causing some confusion and frustration for motorists, particularly those who make the left turn from Crane Road and find themselves stuck behind a parked bus.

``We really don't want motorists to drive down Old Northern Road at the moment and we are trying to discourage it,'' Mr Willimott said.

``We would have liked to have been at the stage we are now [with the work] by mid-June.

``We'd have liked to have all the footpath torn up, but we are playing catch-up and getting ahead by working at night and weekends.''

When Old Northern Road is finally closed to traffic, there will be two temporary raised pedestrian crossings.

Mr Willimott said preparations were under way to re-locate the bus stop outside the entrance to Castle Mall to its new temporary location adjacent to Arthur Whitling Park when the road is finally closed to enable the work to be completed.