Roadworks causing five weeks of chaos on Oxfordshire roads could have been done in just NINE DAYS.

That's the claim of top county council officers, who have has attacked the Highways Agency for its handling of the repairs.

David Young, director of environmental services, criticised the work in an internal staff newsletter. He said the council completed similar work on another bridge in nine days.

Northbound traffic between the Botley interchange and Peartree roundabout in Oxford has been diverted for the past three weeks, with another fortnight of misery to go. Part of the work is to repair the weak Seacourt Bridge.

Thousands of drivers have been caught in traffic jams and businesses in Oxford claim the work is ruining trade.

Today, Richard Dix, the council's chief engineer for highway maintenance, said the chaos need not have happened if the Highways Agency had listened to the authority's suggestions.

He said the county council carried out almost identical repair work on a bridge in Botley Road five years ago and took just nine days.

That project showed it was possible to put carbon fibre plates below the concrete beams so traffic could continue to travel across the bridge while work carried on below.

Mr Dix said: "We are disappointed the Highways Agency had not used our suggested way of strengthening the Seacourt bridge.

"We thought it would be a good idea this time to put our research into practice but it was not their view - they were not persuaded.

"Unfortunately it is now too late to do anything about it. The argument was lost when designing the contract."

We replaced the Botley Road bridge some years ago and we organised it in nine days.

"We felt they could have done it faster. It is a bit of a puzzle why it is taking them 30 days when we did it much faster."

No-one at the Highways Agency was available for comment.

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