QUESTIONS have been raised over why it will take so long to dual the A4440 ring road after a new section of a railway bridge was completed.

Mike Kent, 68, said he was alarmed after being told by a councillor that money had not yet been secured to complete the dualling of the Crookbarrow Way section - between the Norton and Whittington roundabouts.

Mr Kent lives in St Peters and uses the road every day on his way to his job in Gloucester.

He said: “This road is a real bottle neck, and it’s been like this for six years now, and there’s always traffic problems.

“We were told the plan was to dual the road, then put in the new railway bridge, and dual the road underneath it – that was the plan as it was explained to us. But now it seems that we’re going to have to wait for that last part to happen.”

Mr Kent wrote to county councillors and received a reply from Councillor Ken Pollock, the county authority’s cabinet member for economy and infrastructure.

It said: “This [dualling Crookbarrow Way] will also cost a lot and there is also the need for another bridge alongside the rail bridge for pedestrian, cycle and horse traffic.

"We are waiting for funds, mainly from developers, to give us the wherewithal to complete the job. This should not be unduly delayed.”

Mr Kent said: “I don’t know if I’m missing something but I’m staggered by this. Why aren’t they rushing to get it finished? Why start without knowing where the money was coming from to finish the project.

"For the sake of about 150 metres of road that’s not dualled my neighbours and I and lots of other people will have to put up with years more of congestion on that stretch of road. It feels like the last straw to be honest.”

Cllr Pollock added: “We have the money for the next phase of the whole work, which is to dual the road between the Ketch and Powick roundabouts and build a new bridge alongside the Carrington Bridge. We’ve got the £64m funding for that and it should all be done by 2021.

“We want to do the road under the railway bridge in parallel, but we haven’t yet got the funding sources in place, so we can’t start until we know where the money is coming from.”

Work currently happening near to the Carrington Bridge is to move an electricity pylon so a new bridge can be built.