Contractor pays roadwork fines

From the archive, first published Monday 26th Mar 2007.

A firm is incurring a £2,000 daily charge for failing to meet a deadline for the completion of roadworks in Cross Hills.

United Utilities, working with Northern Gas Networks, is laying a new gas pipe, but the £110,000 project has overrun by several weeks.

It was initially expected to take six weeks but work is now in its 19th week.

Earlier this month North Yorkshire County Council gave United Utilities an ultimatum, to finish the work on Main Street by March 19 or face a daily fine.

The firm is still working on the A6068 near the police station.

North Yorkshire's area highway manager Chris Craven said: "As far as we are concerned that is still the main road, so the charges apply."

"We have done what we can within our powers to get them moving."

United Utilities spokesman Richard Felton said that they hoped to finish work on the main road by the end of the week.

They will then move on to the side streets, which are not covered by the ultimatum.

"We will be working on Ryeland Street and Victoria Road, but we do not envisage the work will cause anywhere near as much disruption as Main Street," said Mr Felton.

The work is expected to take about two weeks.

Once the work is completed, highway officials will inspect the site and draw up a "snagging" list.

The contractors then have two years to make a permanent reinstatement of the road to prescribed standards.

"They will definitely have to do some work as some of the repairs are not acceptable," said Mr Craven.

If the contractors opt to carry out the reinstatement straight away, the work would be classed as part of the initial project and so would incur daily charges of six months.

On the other hand, if they decide to carry out the work at a later date, it would be seen as a separate project.

The contractors would have to make temporary repairs to ensure the road was safe to use in the meantime.

Start or join a debate on this issue in our online forum - Click here