A ROW has broken out between Southend Council and National Grid over major delays to roadworks on the A127.

The Echo revealed earlier this week the council had blamed the electricity and gas firm for chaos at the Kent Elms junction, in Eastwood. Improvements to widen the road to three lanes were due to end in May, but will now continue until September.

The authority claim it took 16 weeks to move a gas main, which was scheduled to take three weeks. This had a knock-on effect on the rest of the project.

National Grid has now hit back. A spokesman said: “This work involved the diversion of 164m of gas mains and the decommissioning of a further 155m of gas mains. A number of gas service pipes to properties also had to be diverted.

“It did not form part of our essential gas mains replacement programme and was done at the request of the council to facilitate their road widening scheme.”

“Our original estimation of the job was for ten weeks. Work was started on November 15, 2016. The work involved complex work across the road. Originally it was hoped to insert the new gas mains into the old ones which would have avoided digging across the carriageway. However we found this was not possible for technical reasons so had to dig across the road to lay the main.

“We also had to shut the job down over the busy Christmas and New Year period to avoid causing local traffic disruption during this busy period.

“Our engineers worked extended hours including nights and weekends to complete the job as soon as possible. Work was finished on February 2, 2017.

“We kept the council informed of our progress throughout the job and at no time did our work impact theirs.”

Work is still ongoing in the footpath near Bridgewater Drive - but the spokesman said this will “have no impact on traffic or the council’s road widening work.”

Southend Council is standing by its claims. A spokesman said: “We were given an estimate of three weeks and the work ended up taking 16. We also refute their assertion that their work did not impact upon ours. With our contractors, Eurovia, we amended our work plans as much as possible to accommodate National Grid’s work but ultimately this has severely delayed the project.”

The extra Southend-bound lane is expected to be completed by June, but the London-bound lane will not be finished until September.

Some off-peak lane closures will be necessary at times, but a minimum of two lanes on the Southend-bound carriageway will be kept open throughout the day.