Telford drivers face new hold-ups with one week's warning of roadworks

The work on the M54 junction six Ketley Dingle roundabout comes just weeks after the junction was reopened by the Highways Agency who closed it for months to do bridge strengthening works.

The council has now called for utility firms to take greater responsibility over how they schedule roadworks to minimise disruption to drivers.

Severn Trent has told Telford & Wrekin Council that it must start works at the Ketley Dingle motorway roundabout next Monday.

While the roundabout is expected to remain open throughout these works, one lane will be closed for around 14 weeks.

The water firm says the work is needed to upgrade water supply pipes that are located underneath the motorway bridge.

To do this, it will need access to the inside of the roundabout, which for safety reasons will close the inside lane.

Severn Trent says that, given the condition of the pipes, there is potential for a major water leak that could result in loss of water supply to thousands of properties and water cascading on to the motorway causing a major traffic hazard.

But councillors have been left baffled as to why the work could not have been done during the previous closures.

Councillor Hilda Rhodes, cabinet member for transport, said: "I, like anyone who uses this roundabout, am left scratching my head as to why this work wasn't scheduled by Severn Trent at the same time as the very lengthy bridge works that finished earlier this year, which they and their contractors were well aware.

"This isn't something that has come out of the blue – if utility companies engage with councils properly works like this can be scheduled with a minimum of disruption."

Mrs Rhodes said the result of last-minute announcements like these is that the council faces flack for a situation which is totally out of their hands.

She said: "The result is that councils will get the blame for something that is totally out of our control and could have been very easily avoided, saving the public the inconvenience and the utility company considerable money.

"I will be contacting all utility companies to ask them to do everything they can to avoid a repeat of this situation."

The Ketley Dingle roundabout reopened on March 17, after six months of closures.

During that time almost 4,000 drivers were captured on average speed cameras breaking a 50mph limit imposed in both directions on the M54 during the work.

In total 3,726 motorists have been handed £100 fines.

A Severn Trent Water spokesperson said: "We have been working with Telford and Wrekin Council to plan this work for some time and we formally notified them at the beginning of April that this would be happening.

"We invest £1.3 million every day to make sure people can keep their taps running and toilets flushing and we do everything we can to minimise disruption for all our customers. However, we would have been unable to carry out work at the same time as the earlier work to strengthen the bridge, because it would have been unsafe for our workers and motorists.

"We'd like to say sorry for any inconvenience this causes, the work we will be carrying out on Ketley Dingle roundabout is essential to make sure that the pipes in the area don't burst. They've now grown old and need to be replaced so that our customers don't have their water supply interrupted and even more importantly, so that the water pipe under the motorway doesn't suddenly burst, causing a major hazard."