ROADWORKS are continuing to cause traffic chaos - and misery for motorists trying to get into Northwich.

At the present time, work is being carried out on Acton Bridge, the Blue Bridge, Victoria Bridge and the Dane Bridge, not to mention London Road and Griffiths Road.

A long list - and it begs the questions why is it necessary to carry out all these at the same time and who makes the decision as to which roadworks are carried out?

Each set of roadworks has a different organisation in charge, usually The Highways Agency, which is involved with trunk roads, which are major routes such as motorways, bypasses and also bridges, and Cheshire County Council, which is in charge of all other routes.

Other organisations such as British Waterways or the utilities can also be involved.

Clr Brian Jamieson, from the Highways and Transportation Local Joint Committee for Vale Royal, said that there are a whole range of issues which affect decision-making in this area.

"It's not just a case of deciding that something needs to be done, it's a complicated issue. Checks have to be made and requests for funding," he said.

"It's like a triple eclipse at the moment, but having said that, to some extent I'm glad that the work is being being carried out.

"The problem is that many of these roadworks are safety-related, some things just have to be done.

"For example, the photographs of the underneath of Victoria Bridge showed how badly it was corroded. If action hadn't been taken it would have meant complete closure rather than just having one lane open."

Consultation is also a key part of the process, according to Cheshire County Council chief engineer Roger Stanway.

"We have quarterly meetings every month where all other organisations are invited. We meet and plan all the work which is to be carried out.

"Each section of roadworks has its own set of circumstances and there are reasons whey they have to be completed at certain times," he said.

"I know that Victoria Bridge, for example, has to be completed by the end of summer.

"I know that there is a lot going on at the moment but projects like the Kingsmead development are part of a long-term programme. When funding becomes available the work must be carried out during that year."

He added: "The reason that something like this has happened is because of the individual circumstances of each of the roadworks.

"We are hoping to minimise disruption. We do try to avoid these type of situations but there is going to be disruption until this present set of roadworks are completed.

"Unfortunately we are always going to be in the situation of work being carried out but not hopefully on this scale."

Meanwhile Clive Naish, of the Highways Agency, said that his organisation had a policy so that this type of overlap of work could be avoided.

"We don't have roadworks within 10 kilometres of each other so that we don't have the situation where drivers are moving from one set of roadworks to another," he said.

The agency has a rolling programme for bridges enforced when the Government set new guidelines last year.

"Some bridges had to be strengthened when legislation came in that bridges would be able to take 40-tonne lorries as part of EC regulations," said Mr Naish.

All this, of course, is of little comfort to drivers, who are facing ever-longer queues in soaring temperatures.

One driver from Delamere Park, who didn't wish to be named, was furious after it took him more than 30 minutes to get into Northwich town centre.

"It's disgusting," he said. "Everywhere you look there are roadworks. My wife and I are partially disabled. We'll be going into Winsford from now on.

"This must be affecting Northwich traders. It was bad enough when the town bridge closed and now this."

PC Bob James, of Northwich police, said that they had received one or two complaints from drivers, some of which were about diversions that had been set up.

"There is obvious concern about the increase in traffic in certain areas. All that we can do is monitor the situation," he said.

"As far as diversions go we can't force drivers to use them but we would expect the public to drive sensibly at all times."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.