I HAVE been unsuccessfully trying to find out from Essex County Council why the contract to carry out the above works was awarded to a company which quoted TWO YEARS to widen an existing 600-metre section of road and make two double roundabouts into large normal roundabouts.

In your article ("New delay to on-going roundabout works”) it appears work now needs to be carried out on the Cowdray Avenue Bridge over the railway.

Essential piling started around February of this year.

One of my questions to the council was if it was essential, why was it not started at the beginning of the project, which would have highlighted any problems from the start?

I also asked who agreed the two year timescale when you consider the following: 1) The Channel Tunnel between Great Britain and France is a total 31.4 miles long. It was constructed over a six-year period between 1988 and 1994.

The work was started from scratch and three tunnels had to be drilled between 50 and 75 metres below the seabed.

The under-seabed sections are the longest in the world. The work involved included a new road infrastructure and laying of new railway lines.

2) The Queen Elizabeth Bridge at the Dartford Crossing took a total of 38 months to complete between August 1988 and October 1991. The work involved a new road infrastructure and building work on the bridge involved working in mid-air at a minimum of over 57 metres above the high water level of the River Thames.

Please can we find out why councillor Kevin Bentley, cabinet member for infrastructure, awarded the contract in the first place?

Two years to carry out such a relatively simple task compared to the two examples above is quite simply ridiculous. The county council needs to be held to account.

I am certain that there are many thousands of people in and around Colchester who would like to know the answers to what has now become a total farce.

Stephen Trott

Claremont Road, Wivenhoe