Utility firms failing to turn up for essential work added to delays to the A530 Middlewich Road closure and can’t be forced to pay compensation, a councillor has said.
Middlewich Road, which has been closed between Pyms Lane and Smithy Lane since May, was due to re-open this month.
But last month, Cheshire East Council revealed it won’t re-open until January of next year because “United Utilities discovered recently that original pipework installed below ground in the affected area was not as recorded’ and ‘further technical investigation work was required”.
The North West Crewe Package, which has brought about the road closure, is being done in three phases.
Phase one, which includes the Leighton roundabout and the Smithy Lane roundabout, is due to be completed by January 2023.
Phase two, which includes the Flowers Lane roundabout, Minshull New Road roundabout and the east-west link is due to be completed by March 2023.
And phase three, which includes the Fairfield roundabout, the north-south spine road and Smithy New Lane is expected to be completed by March 2024.
On Wednesday, at a meeting of the full council, deputy leader Craig Browne (Ind) blamed utility companies for delaying the scheme by not turning up to do work when expected.
“The current target is to have the road completed and fully open to traffic by April 2024,” he said.
“However I do need to advise that there have already been delays caused by various utility companies not turning up on site when booked to carry out essential works to their own infrastructure.
“Such events add significantly to the cost of the scheme and they also cause delays as our principle contractors are effectively left on site but unable to proceed.
“Unfortunately, as a council, we don’t have the ability legally to pass compensation claims on to such companies.
“This is something that the leader and I and the chief executive will be taking up with MPs at our quarterly meeting this Friday.”
His comments came after Crewe West councillor Marilyn Houston (Lab) asked for an update on the progress of the NWCP because of the chaos the Middlewich Road closure was causing for residents.
The official diversion route is 10.5 miles.
Cllr Houston said: “Motorists are choosing to use residential side streets as rat-runs and they’re getting more and more inventive in finding these routes and unfortunately, more worryingly, they’re choosing to use them as race tracks.
“We’ve had conversations with local residents and elderly residents who are really, really, worried that they are unable to cross the road safely outside their own homes during some times of the day.”
(story by Belinda Ryan, local democracy reporter)
This whole development is run my the ‘boys club gang’, all ho ho and everything is running to plan? When as everybody who has to go to the hospital, or past it, is totally inconvenienced and all who live near the upheaval is being subjected to major traffic problems. Well the man in charge could not organise a tea party in a butty factory. There needs to have been a woman in charge, from the beginning, who would have put clauses into the contract with all utility companies, and work contractors, those who cause the project to become stalled will be fined, by their payments reduced by a set amount for delays, which are the companies fault. Sadly for the ‘boys club gang’ a woman could have made the whole plan work to contract, and more importantly a good job. Now United Utilities are making puerile excuses about pipework not being what was “thought to be there” well they should know, as they are the ones responsible for the pipework’s in the first place. Well they have the cameras that can be sent down the pipes, to inspect the ‘wrong’ work, and then formulate a plan to put the pipes right, all tired under worked men will make excuses to do nothing, especially the bosses who are celebrating their big bonuses’, counting money is very tiring. UU, get your idle fingers out and get your part of work done, corrected and get the road plan back on target, and all the men need to be told there are 7 working days available in each week.
The whole project has been mismanaged from the start,just like the rest of the the government, we appear to be run by idiots.
All involved should be held to account, the road should never have been totally closed,it would have been cheaper and quicker to reroute the road,build it and then close the existing section.
And who the he’ll thought a diversion of over ten miles was over going to be followed