Repairs agreed for damaged St Helen Auckland road (From The Advertiser Series)

Repairs agreed for damaged St Helen Auckland road

3:02pm Wednesday 13th March 2013 in News By Dani Webb, Chief Reporter (South Durham)

A BUSY road is to be repaired less than a year after improvements were carried out after the wrong surface was put down.

However, the work to Manor Road and Maude Terrace, in St Helen Auckland, will not cost the taxpayer anything after a council contractor admitted it was their mistake and agreed to foot the bill.

The route is used by thousands of motorists every day and has become increasingly busy since the opening of the Bishop Auckland Shopping Park last year.

A spokeswoman for Durham County Council said the resurfacing work is expected to take place in May, although the loose chippings will be cleared in the coming weeks to help prevent damage to vehicles.

County Councillor for the area, Rob Yorke, said he was disappointed with the state of the road but pleased contractors had agreed to carry the work out.

“The road started coming up not long after it was finished last year,” he said. “It is a busy road so we need a surface that can cope with the volume of traffic.

“There will be some inconvenience while the work is carried out but once it is done it should last for a long time.”

In addition to this work, Durham Council engineers have cleared out the drains under the A688 West Auckland bypass, which has been prone to flooding in recent months, despite only being built a few years ago.

An old mine was found to contain a lot of silt and debris inside and was causing a blockage in heavy downpours.

Coun Yorke added: “It has been a problem with flooding for a while and it was worrying that it was having to be shut when we had spells of heavy rain.

“There are businesses around there who can’t afford to see the road closed.

“Hopefully we have alleviated the problem now and we should be able to alleviate the biggest of downpours. There is nothing wrong with the size of the drain.”