COULD one be forgiven for imagining that at the end of a more-than- a-mile-long traffic jam, there would be a sizeable workforce employed on the construction causing the jam?

If that were to be the dream, it would soon be shattered on encountering the A64 flyover construction site. On Friday morning, despite hold-ups extending almost back to Tadcaster, there were no more than a dozen people to be seen working on the site.

Not that this is anything new; it has been the situation for many weeks and, indeed, this same arrangement was the norm for the Copmanthorpe underpass.

I stress that this is no slight on the hard work being done by the few on the site. It is the fact that there are so few that beggars belief.

Why does the Highways Agency preside over such a shambles?

Decades ago about 50 miles of the M1 motorway were completed in about 18 months. Is there anyone awake in the Highways Agency?

Nowadays, with all the sophisticated modern equipment it takes - wow - 18 months to construct one flyover.

G Ledger,

Horseman Close,

Copmanthorpe,

York.

Updated: 09:32 Thursday, February 24, 2005