Calculating economic cost of seemingly never-ending works

IN 1988 I established my business in Darlington because of its access to the Al and the ease of connection to clients that are located in either Newcastle or Leeds.

- Graham Robb

The economic artery of this road has been fundamental to our region since Roman times. However, for at least 30 years the road has been subjected to constant improvement, and I feel I have been trapped in a never-ending period of massive and costly roadworks.

I have been thinking about the economic cost of the delays versus the promised but hardly improved traffic flow. As the chairman of the regional branch of the Institute of Directors, I was consulted 10 years ago on the speed limit for the Al improvements in Gateshead.

The Department of Transport had spent millions improving the road but was going to reduce the speed limit to 50mph due to traffic noise for nearby houses.

I reluctantly accepted this was needed because traffic flow was supposed to improve.

The works came to an end recently, only for traffic jams to return because of problems on the new Allerdene bridge, near Team Valley.

The radio traffic reports on the early evening of December 1 told me of a 30-minute delay.

Further south, changes to crash barriers add three minutes each way to your journey at Durham. For people who commute to work and back five days a week on this stretch of road that is two hours a month.

Apart from the frustration and inconvenience, how do those delays actually affect our economy?

I contacted National Highways to ask about this. They did give me good news about the delays at Team Valley, saying: "Allerdene Bridge has proven to require some factory defect correction, and we are in the process of erecting a complex scaffold to carry out the repairs directly above the railway line.