ENGINEERS have solved the problem of a crossover between the new Semington bypass and the Kennet and Avon Canal and will soon finish building a modern-day aqueduct.

It is the first aqueduct to be built on the canal since it opened in 1810.

David Berezynskyj, British Waterways operations engineer, said: "It is a concrete trough that carries the canal over the bypass.

"It has been done in stages and we have diverted the canal around the aqueduct before we could send it over the bridge.

"We were limited with what we could do with the design and people should not be expecting a stunning structure like the aqueduct at Dundas or Avoncliff, but we wanted to minimise the impact the new structure and the bypass would have on the canal.

"We will have a reed fringe along the aqueduct so as you go along the canal you will not feel like you are going over a concrete bridge and the fringe will encourage wildlife along the edge."

Engineers had their work cut out negotiating a way to get the canal over, under or around the new bypass.

Peter Binley, Wiltshire County Council principal highways engineer, said: "We originally considered building a bridge to take the bypass over the canal, but that could have been too intrusive and would have stood out too much in the landscape.

"We came up with the plan for an aqueduct because it will mean we reduce the impact of the bypass scheme on villages."

The new aqueduct is a hefty structure carrying water at least 2m deep.

To get enough space for lorries to get under it on the bypass a cutting 5.5m deep is being dug.

Mr Berezynskyj said: "We will have to close the canal briefly again after Christmas for the next stages of the bypass but I should think that by the end of next summer the vegetation will have grown up around the aqueduct and it will look well established."

Work on the bypass is on schedule and council officials believe it will be finished by February.

A family of great crested newts has been evacuated while the bypass is being built and will be reinstalled in their original home once the work is over.

The newts are protected by law and newt-proof fencing lines the new road stopping them and other wildlife becoming victims of traffic.

A council spokesman said: "When the bypass is finished there will be tunnels for newts and badgers and bridges for bigger species like deer.

"As part of the regulations allowing us to build the bypass we had to ensure all these measures protecting wildlife and the local ecology were in place."