The opening of the much heralded A6 Relief road has been delayed until the summer with Stockpot Council blaming a number of factors including the Carillion collapse.
One of the primary contractors for the project were Carillion. Following their liquidation last month, Morgan Sindall has now taken over the delivery of the project and will be leading on the future construction say the council.
Other factors behind the delay include bad weather,ground investigation surveys and drainage problems under the A555 which needed urgent and essential repairs to stop a potential road collapse.
Councillor Kate Butler, Cabinet Member for Economy and Regeneration at Stockport Council commented: “The A6MARR project has faced a number of challenges and whilst a lot of work has taken place to reduce their impact they have affected progress on the project, and unfortunately we will be unable to open the road as planned this spring. On behalf of the whole project team, I apologise for this further delay and want to assure residents and businesses that we are continuing to work very closely with the contractor to get work completed and the road open as soon as possible.
“Whilst this news is disappointing, when it opens the A6MARR will bring many benefits for residents and companies throughout the area, reducing congestion on our roads and bringing jobs and business opportunities closer than they ever have been before.”
This area at the moment is beyond a joke. Between this being delayed and both Styal Road and Wilmslow Road at Handforth being reduced to single lanes and the A34 and some of it’s connecting roads being some kind of permanent traffic cone displays it’s impossible to get around. This wouldn’t be as bad if it wasn’t for the years now that this project has been ongoing you occasionally saw some progress but there seems to be a severe lack of workforce on these projects and obviously a lot less hours than the jobs require being put in. I’m pretty sure this would have been finished at least 12 months ago in most other countries even with some unforseen issues coming into it. Surely sections of this could have been finished and introduced and other works in the areas most impacted by simultaneous works going on have been planned much better maybe even delayed until there was some alternatives available for road users to use.