3:40pm Tuesday 31st August 2010
By James Rush
A councillor has hit out at contractors for causing weeks of delays at a busy Shipley junction – without doing any of the intended work.
Northern Gas Networks had aimed to replace an old metal gas main with plastic pipe as part of a £152,000 gas mains investment project near Fox Corner.
But despite more than four weeks of disruption caused by a lane closure in Otley Road leading up to the busy junction, the firm has now conceded that the discovery of “unexpected site conditions” has led to the work being postponed until next year.
Councillor John Cole (Lib Dem, Baildon) said many people had complained to him about why part of the road had been closed when the works appeared to be taking place on the pavement.
He said: “While the works were taking place on the pavement, they felt they needed to take out a carriageway so pedestrians could still move.
“There have been days and days where apparently there’s been no activity there and this has really irritated people in Baildon and elsewhere.
“People have come to me – I understand their concerns and support their concerns, I sympathise with them and I’m actually outraged by the way in which this has turned out.
“I’m calling for a meeting with Council officers to say this must not happen again.
“We have had four and a half weeks of dislocation and disruption for nothing – maybe a week is understandable, that would be enough to find the site-specific difficulties. After that they really should move in and clear off site. The public has been left in the dark and it’s not good enough.”
Gwen Evans, spokesman for Northern Gas Networks, said: “We always look to minimise disruption wherever possible but unfortunately, by its very nature, our work sometimes leads to inconvenience. We would like to apologise for this.
“We had hoped to complete this work inside the five-week school holiday window but we discovered some unexpected site conditions that slowed us down.
“After consultation with the Council it’s been agreed to pull off site before the end of the holidays to minimise disruption and return next year.”
John Briggs, a director of Ellis Briggs Cycles in Otley Road, Shipley, said there had been complaints about traffic queues due to the lane closure.
He said: “We have had customers coming in complaining that it’s taken them a long time to get here, they had to sit in traffic for an hour.
“We don’t know if it’s affected us, we have been steady enough, but how many customers we have lost we don’t know.”
Engineers at contractors Enterprise were carrying out the works on behalf on Northern Gas Networks.
The pipeline owner has said part of the road had to be closed to provide an alternative walkway for pedestrians.
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