5:00pm Tuesday 9th February 2010
By Helen Orrell
HIGHWAYS officials have been asked to take an urgent look at the A133, between Colchester and Elmstead Market, after traffic police raised concerns about potholes.
In one recent incident, a 34-year-old woman from Dovercourt was lucky to avoid serious injury when her Ford Mondeo left the road and hit a telegraph pole.
She was treated for shock at the scene.
Essex Police’s Stanway road policing unit officers are still investigating the contribution the road surface might have made to the accident.
Drivers claim an already-poor road surface has worsened since the new year snow thawed.
Rosemary Heaney, Tendring councillor for Elmstead, said: “It’s worse on the stretch coming from Colchester to Elmstead.
“You have to be jolly careful in the dark, as it has totally collapsed.”
Jon Manning, Colchester councillor for Wivenhoe Cross, said he knew highways engineers had visited the road, but many of the potholes remained unfilled. He said: “Some, which I reported as early as December, still haven’t been fixed.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if it had caused an accident. The state of the road is disgraceful.
“The county council has been doing temporary repairs, but they are completely rubbish.”
Michael Page, Essex County Council spokesman, said: “Essex County Council is aware of the deterioration of the eastbound carriageway following recent heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures.
“The county council responded to this by putting warning signs in place as soon as the defects were discovered, and completing temporary repairs on several occasions.
“Further monitoring has shown full resurfacing of the carriageway is required, and the county council is working to put this in place as soon as possible.
“A section of the westbound carriageway will also be resurfaced. The work is planned to take place overnight on Thursday and Friday this week, in order to keep any disruption to a minimum.
“In the meantime, traffic is to be restricted to the nearside lane with a 20mph speed limit.”
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