WORK is ploughing ahead at Bicester's designer outlet as the expansion continues to take shape on the outskirts of town.

The steel structure and roofing is in place showing the grand scale of the Bicester Village expansion which is expected to open this year.

It will house an extra 33 new shops on top of its existing brands, of which there are more than 130.

The steelwork frame showing the bones of the structure has been built on the former Tesco Superstore site which moved over the road in April last year.

The skeleton of the Bicester Village addition was completed in January and since then most of the roofing has been put in place and a lot of the external structure going in.

The expansion works are being completed by developers Simons Group along with a host of road improvements which are being done in the surrounding area also.

So far, this has included the creation of a hamburger roundabout nearby Bicester services on the A41 Oxford Road.

Contractors have now moved along to the roundabout at the end of Pingle Drive heading into the designer outlet with a view of creating another traffic light-controlled roundabout there also.

Oxfordshire County Council spokesman Martin Crabtree said: "The contractors are working on Pingle Drive works revamping the roundabout, which will ultimately be signal controlled.

"The work is running to schedule.

"At the moment there are short lane closures are in place between Pingle Drive and the Esso roundabout, but they are not impacting significantly on the flow of traffic."

The hamburger roundabout at the Esso roundabout, neighbouring Bicester Services, was completed in February and has been successful in keeping traffic moving heading in and out of the town near Bicester Village.

Workers have now turned their attentions to Pingle Drive where they are creating a new dual carriageway heading into and out of the designer outlet site.

Bicester TAG co-chairwoman Sallie Wright said: "The hamburger roundabout is doing its job and seems to be working extremely well.

"The other little roundabout at the entrance to Bicester village is an absolute nightmare to drive through currently.

"Because they have reduced the lanes from two to one, traffic gets held up coming from Bicester.

"I think it will be ok once the roundabout near Bicester Village is complete and also the building work."

The roundabout at this junction is in the process of being redesigned to also include a traffic light controlled system.

Bicester Village was unavailable to comment on the progress of the development.