MOTORISTS can expect disruption for a couple of weeks yet on a busy route into Oxford as works to improve Frideswide Square have been delayed.

Oxfordshire County Council has been carrying out work for the fifth time in just over two years since February 11, blaming ‘unlawful driving’ for cracked kerbs and slabs.

Since last Sunday, it has taken some drivers over 45 minutes to get from the Botley Interchange to Frideswide Square during rush hour due to the works.

It spent £6.7m on the square’s major redesign, which reopened in December 2015.

Work to improve the surface outside the Royal Oxford Hotel has been ‘progressing well’, according to the council, but has been delayed by about two and a half days because of the freezing weather last week.

The final phase of the work is expected to start on Sunday and last for about a fortnight, subject to weather conditions.

Workmen will install a new reinforced concrete base, granite kerbs and Yorkstone slabs at the approach of the westbound bus stop.

The county council said it has been scheduled to coincide with surfacing work which Oxford City Council will complete on Hollybush Row. Overall disruption ‘will be kept to a minimum’.

In addition, kerb repairs on Botley Road island will take place next week over two nights. That work will be carried out between 7pm and midnight.

Commuters have needed to put up with more traffic than normal since February 11, which has clogged up Botley Road, Thames Street and Abingdon Road.

The county council carried out a fortnight’s work in August 2016, completing ‘minor repairs and alterations’ outside the Royal Oxford Hotel.

Previously the council said it was ‘stumped’ why cracks were regularly appearing in pavements but conceded work outside the roundabout meant it was ‘a little bit too tight’

Then in April 2017, other repairs took place outside the Royal Oxford Hotel; in September, two bus bays were resurfaced. That work caused two night of closures in that part of the city.