Motorists face mayhem on two of the district's busiest routes next week through separate roadworks.

The snarled-up A650 between Keighley and Bradford will be hit once more after a fault was found in an underground electricity cable.

Roadworks on the stretch last autumn caused chaos and floods of complaints as motorists queued for hours to get through. The traffic-choked Bolton Road area of Bradford will also be hit from next week as the Council starts major carriageway reconstruction work.

Today the chairman of the highways sub-committee, Councillor Phil Thornton, said the work was "absolutely essential" in both cases and everything possible would be done to minimise problems.

He asked motorists to bear with it and said the Council had learned lessons from the chaos caused by the work schedule and temporary traffic lights on the A650 last time. It follows the discovery of a fault in an underground electricity cable in the middle of the road at the junction of Wagon Lane and Cottingley Bridge, near Beckfoot School. Yorkshire Electricity says it will be necessary to bring engineers into carry out urgent repair work. Traffic flow at that location will be restricted and temporary traffic lights will be in place for one day on May 9.

Work on Bolton Road between Queen's Road and Stone Hall Road will also start on Tuesday and is expected to last for about a month. It will be carried out during weekdays and weekends.

Temporary traffic lights will operate for most of the time and some side roads off Bolton Road will be closed to traffic as work progresses. In addition, Idle Road will be closed at its junction with Bolton Road for several Sundays from 7.30am to 6pm.

A Council spokesman advised people to find alternative routes where possible, especially at rush hours. He said: "Unfortunately, due to the nature of Bolton Road and the volume of traffic using it daily, there will inevitably be some delays and disruption caused to motorists."

Former police chief Mark Rand, who lives in Bingley, said the A650 would continue to be vulnerable until the new Bingley bypass was built.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.