Management of roadworks on Bedford's A6 Paula Radclliffe Way branded 'sloppy' as drivers face extra hour on journey times

The roadworks on the A6 Paula Radcliffe Way are adding an hour to some people’s journeys, a borough councillor has said.

During the council’s Executive Meeting (November 22) councillor Doug McMurdo (Independent, Sharnbrook) said residents were “extremely frustrated” at the queues and the traffic management around the roadworks.

“Particularly, I might say, of an evening in the last few weeks,” he said. “It’s just adding delays that frankly could be avoided if the signalling was better worked out.”

Queues are also causing problems for shoppers at Sainsbury’s as customers have trouble leaving the site due to backed-up traffic.

Deputy mayor & portfolio holder for environment, highways and transport, councillor James Weir (Conservative, Great Denham) told the meeting he is “satisfied” that engineers and contractors are doing all that they can to facilitate a speedy end to the roadworks.

“No doubt everybody in this room shares the frustration of this project and the delays it’s caused,” he said.

“It’s not been done on purpose, it’s not been done to inconvenience people. It’s a large project that’s been on the cards now for a number of years, the delivery is getting closer.

“We’ve made several adjustments throughout the term of the project, I’m hoping that these final adjustments will ease [queues] even further as the project comes to an end. But there will be as you would imagine a full review of how the whole project was handled and put through and specced up and why certain issues came up.”

Councillor McMurdo said he didn’t think that the project has been managed effectively.

“Some of the stuff that I’ve seen is just really really basic, the times that you see a lack of workforce on the highway actually doing work is greater than when you actually see people doing it,” he said. “This is at best sloppy.”

The council has confirmed that the works are entering their final phase – and are due to be completed on Friday, December 15. Originally the works were due to finish at the end of November – but an inspection of the safety barriers revealed that they needed to be replaced.

Speaking after the meeting, councillor Weir added: "We understand the challenges that roadworks can pose to the community, and we appreciate the ongoing patience of residents and commuters. In light of recent concerns raised by Sainsbury's, we kindly urge motorists to adhere to the highway code and refrain from blocking the junction. This small but crucial gesture will greatly assist customers leaving the Sainsbury's site."

Council officers are reviewing the operation of the traffic signals and there will be extra signage in place asking people not to block the junction to help clear traffic from the Sainsbury's site more quickly.