The reopening of the A530 Middlewich Road has been delayed until January 2023 due to a planning delay from one of Cheshire East Council’s partners on the project, it has emerged.
United Utilities discovered original pipework installed below ground in the affected area was not as recorded.
They had to do more work to determine the material of the original pipework, before new diversion work could take place.
Now the A530, which had been due to open at the end of October, will remain closed until January 2023.
Its closure has already caused controversy among many in South Cheshire as a key route to and from Leighton Hospital and between Nantwich, Crewe and Middlewich.
Cllr Craig Browne, chair of Cheshire East Council’s highways and transport committee, said: “It is very frustrating that this technical issue has arisen and as a result we find ourselves facing a delay.
“We have been working closely with United Utilities to set out what is required from them going forward on this vital strategic infrastructure project for Crewe.
“We are of course disappointed that this technical issue has come up and has delayed the planned reopening.
“In order to recover time, residents will now see works taking place at the weekends to try to claw back as much as possible, in an attempt to reopen the road before the target date of January.
“I can only apologise to residents for the prolonged period of disruption.”
Gareth Davies, customer delivery manager at United Utilities, said: “We have been working closely with Cheshire East Council and Balfour Beatty over the past few months to plan the six packages of work required of United Utilities as part of the North West Crewe Package.
“These involve diverting existing mains water pipes at a number of locations, in a way that does not cause any disruption to supplies for our tens of thousands of customers in the area, including the hospital.
“Unfortunately, there were some delays of approximately eight weeks encountered by us and we sincerely apologise for any impact this may have had to the overall project.
“There were a number of factors at play, including the complexity of the work required, as well as the need to do some elements of work at night to keep our teams safe.
“We were also in a time of high demand due to the hot weather, and were carefully managing the resources required across our region.
“Of our six packages of work for the North West Crewe Package, two have now been finished and we are working hard to ensure the remaining four are completed on or before their estimated dates.
“We remain committed to working directly with Cheshire East Council and Balfour Beatty on this important strategic infrastructure project.”
The planning of this project has been a complete joke from the start, now it’s just unbelievably pathetic. I’m sure if Cllr Browne worked at Leighton and lived in Nantwich none of this would be happening. Maybe the council would like to reduce my council tax by £20 per month, to compensate me for the extra money I’m spending on fuel every month.
I think it’s time this incompetent highways department were all sacked and replaced with people who can actually organise a p*** up in a brewery.
Exactly Chris, not rocket science just what any competent organisation would have done.
Come on is anybody really surprised, dumb and dumber still I am sure someone is making a lot of money out of this mess
And as for saying sorry, talk is cheep unlike my council tax
You would have thought that as the road has been closed for a long time, they would have done trial test holes to check the old records were correct. But no, this is CEC who seem to be unable to plan ahead. In view of what is going on in our Country at the moment CEC has used this time to announce this news.
Shocked? No.
CEC have to be in the running for least competent and least believable council in the UK. I take everything highways say as a lie or a guess.