Roadworks stretch city’s most expensive in five years

CLOSE to £250,000 was spent on a single roadworks project in Dundee last year, the most expensive in the city in the last five years.

The work, which took place on Perth Road, was one of many roadworks projects to have taken place on the street and the surrounding West End area in recent years, with residents and local councillors repeatedly voicing their frustration with the consistent disruption.

Taking place on a stretch close to the new Harris Academy in May 2016, it cost the council £242,178, and lasted for three weeks.

The works, between Blackness Avenue and West Park Road, had long been planned but construction of the school meant the stretch of road was being used regularly by heavy-duty machinery, postponing the project.

A year on, the area continues to be impacted by works with a further four weeks of road maintenance disruption on the way at the end of the month.

Upon finding out the high cost of last year’s project, West End councillor Fraser Macpherson said he was “very unhappy” with the quality of the work, having previously voiced frustration with disruption due to the high number of projects in the area.

He said: “A quarter-of-a-million pounds is a significant cost and I want to see value for money and minimal disruption during the impending works. I remain very unhappy about the quality of surface dressing used at Perth Road recently, west of Harris Academy, and have made clear to Tayside Contracts that the remaining dust and loose chippings must be removed.”

After the Perth Road project, the next most expensive roadworks in the city in the last five years was resurfacing work on Lochee Road in 2015 which cost £185,000, with last year’s works on Drumgeith Road the third most costly, requiring an injection of £177,000.

Roadworks in Perth Road.