MOTORISTS in York are set for more traffic hold-ups when a main road into the city undergoes gas repairs later this month.

The works in Hull Road will mean more disruption for drivers as it coincides with prolonged road closures only yards away in Lawrence Street.

The Press has been told that the current roadworks in Lawrence Street, Walmgate, Foss Island Road and Barbican Road, will be extended for a further three weeks.

These began on May 4 and were originally expected to last 12 weeks, meaning they were due to finish on July 27.

The delay will mean they will remain in place until the second week of August.

A United Utilities spokesperson confirmed temporary traffic lights would also be erected to allow underground gaswork repairs in Hull Road from Saturday, July 24, for a maximum of nine days, with two small excavations, one outside the Black Bull pub and the other at its junction with Tang Hall Lane.

Three-way temporary lights will be in operation around the excavations to ensure pedestrians can cross in safety, and that traffic can move at a reasonable pace, and access will be maintained to the sports centre.

The project is the latest gas main repair scheme to hit drivers in York, after Gillygate was closed earlier this year.

Northern Gas Networks, which is carrying out the Lawrence Street work to replace old Victorian metal pipes with safer plastic ones, A spokesperson for United Utilities said: “We would like to apologise in advance for any inconvenience experienced and reassure road-users that we are doing all we can to minimise disruption.

“Engineers will be working every hour they can, including over the weekend and extended working days wherever possible.”

The company said the works were carried out in the summer as less gas was used, and minimal disruption would be caused.

Northern Gas Networks, working with United Utilities, also appealed to residents and businesses in the Lawrence Street area to “bear with us”.

Speaking about the extension to the Lawrence Street works Area operations manager Tony Thompson said the delay was unexpected, but necessary.

He said: “During the last week, engineers discovered that they need to dig deeper than expected to replace a particular section of the gas main. The extra work and safety measures this requires have forced the completion date to be revised.

“We can only ever give a best guess estimate for our works. Sometimes, the unexpected happens to knock us off course – this is what’s happened here.

“The deeper the excavation the more difficult the job becomes and as a result we now think this work will take three weeks longer to complete than first estimated - we are really sorry about this.”

A spokesperson for United Utilities said: “We wanted to let people of York know as soon as we did.”