THE construction of a river crossing planned to tackle congestion misery in Warrington has been pushed back to spring.

Enabling work to pave the way for the Centre Park link road started in November.

It has been focused around the decommissioning of the former Furness Rigby car sales plot on Chester Road.

A key part of the council’s £19.8 million project is a new bridge across the Mersey to connect Chester Road to the town centre, via an extended Slutchers Lane leading from Wilson Patten Street.

It will also see new traffic signal junction arrangements on Chester Road and Wilson Patten Street, along with traffic calming proposals for the Gainsborough Road area.

The council was aiming for the 18-month construction phase to start in winter this year before it was delayed until ‘early 2019’.

And during the supporting the local economy policy committee meeting on December 4, council officers informed members that construction work was ‘good to go’ after the authority gained control of the final parcels of land that were not acquired by negotiation.

However, it has now been confirmed that it will not begin until spring next year, although the authority is unable to say which month it hopes to start the work.

Furthermore, CCTV cameras have been installed on Landseer Avenue as part of a traffic survey which is being carried out before building work begins.

A council spokeswoman added: “The purpose of this survey is to monitor traffic conditions before construction work starts on the Centre Park link scheme.

“The same survey will then be repeated, after the scheme has been delivered, to help assess the impact of the new link road on traffic conditions.

“Following the recent announcement by the secretary of state for transport that the highway compulsory purchase order for the scheme has been confirmed, the council will now be acquiring all remaining land and property rights.

“It is anticipated that this will conclude and enable a start on the construction phase in spring 2019.”