Commuters urged to take public transport after second day of misery around Wolvercote and Cutteslowe

Deputy leader of Oxfordshire County Council Rodney Rose said the roadworks weren't something they could "magic overnight" while a senior director said the delays showed how over capacity our road network is.

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But drivers and commuters lambasted the work after vehicles ground to a halt for the second day in a row due to the A44 between the junction and Pear Tree being restricted to one lane.

Taxi Driver Colin Dobson, 48, said: "If this carries on it's inevitable something will happen around that area."

Deputy leader of Oxfordshire County Council Rodney Rose said he had been caught up in the chaos himself and urged the public to plan their journeys or use public transport where possible.

He added: "It took me one and three quarter hours to get in this morning on what is usually a 55-minute journey, of course I find it frustrating like everyone else.

"But do we want the cart tracks or roads to be able to cope with the demand? We cannot just magic it overnight."

The council is currently considering the possibility of night working on the £9m project, but Mr Rose said cost was an issue, adding it did not necessarily improve productivity.

Experts are also looking at options relating to the 12-week lane closure despite the measure due to be in place until mid-July.

The change to one line was introduced on Saturday, but the true effect was laid bare as traffic chaos ensued from the start of the working week as traffic backed up for miles.

Joe Organ, who commutes to his work at Brasenose College from Yarnton, called the plight of the roadworks "shambolic".

Dr Organ said he thought the traffic was worse yesterday compared to Monday and that his usual 25-minute bus journey into the city centre took over an hour.

The 40-year-old added: "The A44 was absolute gridlock.

"The most frustrating thing is that it's like a ghost town, I crawled past it on the bus, and they've closed the whole distance between the roundabouts, but have done no work at all on the length of road.

"The agony we are going through is completely unnecessary at the moment. The whole project has been conducted at a snail's pace."

The county council warned motorists about the changes last Tuesday, urging them to plan ahead or use alternative routes.

It said: "The closure is needed so that the team have space to work as they continue to make progress on improving the roundabout and the approach roads."

The new phase of work will move the central reservation and create an additional lane on the approach to Wolvercote roundabout.

Nickie Rogan who runs Townhouse Executive Travel said the delays had "completely messed" up her appointments and caused a "logistical nightmare".

The 45-year-old mum-of-two from Bladon, Woodstock, added she was "quite positive" about the roadworks, but that the lack of workers on site and the time it was taken to be completed causing her problems.

She said: "I's a big problem when a huge part of our business is punctuality. There were only two workers there, which is infuriating for the locals.

"I was not expecting it to be bad all day but I went through again at half 10 and it was still backed up to Begbroke. Some drivers are getting quite aggressive."

Karen Coventry, Business Development Manager, Stagecoach in Oxfordshire said they had seen "serious delays" to their services.

She added: "We have seen a slight decrease in passengers on bus services affected by the roadworks, however we are doing all we can to ensure we can keep our services running reliably."

David Nimmo Smith cabinet member for environment said: "You have got to work with live roads but clearly you have also got to get the work done. That means reducing capacity at times.

"There are a number of people working there at any one time and while I can't comment on what they are doing.

"There are also several houses, so we have erred away from doing work at night - although we are looking at what quieter activities we could do in the evenings.

"We do not want to close down Oxford - these works are about increasing capacity and improving the situation."

"We are doing our best to keep Oxfordshire moving"- Sue Scane director for environment and economy at Oxfordshire County Council

I read the Oxford Mail’s Our View column yesterday with great interest. The focus was clearly on the disruption caused by roadworks, but the key point to my mind was the recognition that the county council needs to look at large scale solutions to the city and county’s road infrastructure.

As I write, the county council is delivering multi-million pound improvements of Oxford’s transport system.

It is has been recognised for a long time that to meet the challenges for the future, the transport infrastructure for Oxford and other key areas of the county need massive investment. The county council has successfully sought investment and has secured many millions of pounds from the government to transform the way people are able to move around the city.

You can see the results of this investment on Frideswide Square, Kennington, London Road and The Plain and will soon see more improvements complete at Milton, Chilton and Hagbourne Hill.

We know that this level of investment in overhauling and improving the county’s infrastructure brings significant disruption. But the important thing to remember is that following the disruption there will be improvements to thousands of journeys each and every day.

The work we are doing now is a priority not just for the county council, but also for the Local Enterprise Partnership who see investment in transport as being key to the future success of Oxford and Oxfordshire, and to the District and City Councils whose Local Plans are planning for over 100,000 homes and 85,000 by 2031.

Without the work we are doing now to improve traffic flows the city would potentially face the kind of delays you are temporarily seeing at the moment as normal as traffic levels rise to exceed the road capacity.  The very fact that this level of delay is occurring shows how close the network is to its capacity.  We feel this is an unacceptable situation and are doing our best with the resources available to keep Oxford, and indeed Oxfordshire, moving.