Contractors blame a shortage of concrete.

Major resurfacing and junction works on Calder’s inner ring road, due to begin next week, have been postponed until the new year after the contractor said it could not secure enough concrete to start on schedule. The council confirmed on Monday that the first phase, covering the stretch between the Canal Street roundabout and the Northgate interchange, will now begin on 12 January at the earliest.

The £18.5 million scheme will replace crumbling concrete road slabs, widen pavements and add segregated cycle lanes along about 2.4 kilometres of the ring road, which carries around 45,000 vehicles a day. It was originally scheduled to run from mid-November to next autumn, with lane closures and overnight full closures planned at several junctions. The delay means that traffic on the busiest shopping weeks of the year will flow normally.

The concrete shortage

The contractor, a regional civil engineering firm, said in a letter to the council that its main supplier had cut deliveries by around forty per cent over the next six weeks, after a fault at a cement works in the north of the region took one of its kilns out of service. Ready-mixed concrete has a short working life and must be delivered from a plant within about ninety minutes, which makes it difficult to source from further afield at short notice.

Other projects across the region are also feeling the squeeze. Builders working on housing developments in Harrow and on the new primary schools at the edge of the city have reported cancelled pours and longer lead times, and at least one bridge repair on the valley road has been put back by a fortnight.

“We would rather not start than start and stop,” said Nikolai Barras, the contractor’s project director. “The worst outcome for drivers would be lanes coned off for weeks with nobody working because we are waiting for deliveries. A clean start in January, with supply secured, is better for everyone.”

Barras said the supplier expected its kiln to be back to full capacity by mid-December, and that the firm had booked deliveries for January with a second plant in Port Selwyn as a back-up.

What it means for drivers and businesses

For motorists the news is broadly welcome, at least in the short term. The council had faced criticism from traders in the old town and the shopping centre at Northgate, who feared the works would deter Christmas shoppers. The Calder business improvement district had asked the council in September to delay the start for exactly that reason and was told at the time that the timetable could not be moved.

Lucinda Ferriby, who chairs the district’s board, said traders were relieved but frustrated that it had taken a supply problem to achieve what they had asked for. “We pointed out months ago that closing lanes on the ring road in December was asking for trouble,” she said. “It is a happy accident, but it is still an accident.”

Bus operators and cycling groups were less pleased. The scheme includes new bus priority at three junctions, and a cycling campaign said further delay to the protected lanes would leave riders on one of the city’s most dangerous roads for longer. Two cyclists were seriously injured at the Northgate interchange last year.

The revised timetable

The council said the overall programme should still finish within the year, although the first phase will now overlap with the spring, when traffic is typically heavier than in midwinter. The revised plan is:

  • Phase one, Canal Street roundabout to Northgate interchange: from 12 January, about fourteen weeks.
  • Phase two, Northgate interchange to Castle Hill: from late April, with two weekend full closures.
  • Phase three, Castle Hill to the river crossing: from August, timed for the school holidays.

The council’s cabinet member for transport, Idris Pemberton, said the authority would not pay any extra costs arising from the delay, under the terms of the contract. Updated diversion maps will be published on the council’s website and posted at affected junctions before the works begin. Residents can sign up for weekly email updates on the project.