WORK on creating a new roundabout at Ipswich Road will not be completed this summer after work had to be paused.

Contractors have stopped work after discovering repairs were needed to the Cowdray Avenue rail bridge.

It was uncovered during vital piling works which saw Ipswich Road south closed last month.

Urgent investigations are now underway ahead of starting repair work.

Until this can be done work to complete the Ipswich Road roundabout must be stopped.

A spokesman for Essex Highways said the bridge work can be done without the need for further road closures.

However it will mean work on Ipswich Road will not be completed until the "latter part of 2020."

It had been hoped to be completed this summer.

Kevin Bentley, Essex County Council's infrastructure, said: “Engineers have reacted to what would otherwise have been a huge issue, potentially causing major disruption on our network.

“They have found the problems with the bridge over the railway now, so that we can get on to establish exactly what needs to be done to keep the bridge safe while we have the space available with our current traffic management system.

"If this hadn’t been found at this point it is certain we would have had to come back and close roads and dig up some of the new road layout again.

“I am grateful for the expertise of our engineers and contractors so that we have avoided these problems.

"In reality we would have had to repair the bridge in the near future, so in fact we are saving months of future disruption and closure of Cowdray Avenue.”

The Harwich Road roundabout and works on St Andrews Avenue is still planned to be completed this summer.

The project to turn the double roundabouts into two single roundabouts was initially due to be completed by December 2019.

It suffered another setback when staff had to stop work due the coronavirus pandemic.

But it had been hoped it would be completed this summer.