The roadworks in Springfield Road will not be completed until September 27, admits county highways chief Councillor Richard Davies.
It means the temporary traffic lights will still be in place when tourists arrive in Grantham from the A52 or A1 for the events surrounding the 75th anniversary of Mallard breaking the world speed record.
In a letter to the Journal - printed in full on our website - Coun Davies states the Belton Lane junction improvements should be completed today (Friday), which will be four days late.
“I apologise for this delay. There are reasons why it happened, but I don’t want to try and excuse it. Quite frankly, it’s not good enough and we will do better in future,” he said.
He said some adjustment of the traffic signals would be necessary during the week to optimise traffic flows.
The delay at the A52 London Road/A607 Springfield Road junction was caused when a fibre optic cable was found to be wrapped around a gas main. It means the work will have lasted three weeks longer than scheduled.
Coun Davies said his team responded quickly when the problem was first revealed, but were hamstrung by the National Grid taking several weeks to send engineers out to fix it.
He said: “This situation is unacceptable and I am lobbying government to force utility companies to respond to council requests much more quickly.”
The first stage of that is to meet Grantham MP Nick Boles on site tomorrow.
Coun Davies pointed out the Springfield Road junction situation could have been worse, because the original estimate was for the delayed work to be finished in mid-October.
“We are now backfilling the footways where Western Power have laid new cables. This work will also include completion of laying new traffic signal ducts and backfilling the hole outside Pizza Hut.
“We will then be in a position to install the new kerb line and commence work on the wall outside Pizza Hut on Monday. Works will then continue as per the programme, but we are working with the contractor to compress this by the working of weekends and evenings, as appropriate, to reduce the delay,” he said.
l Coun Davies would like to hear from anyone with suggestions on how the road network can be improved - you can contact him via e-mail at: cllrr.davies@lincolnshire.gov.uk