THE contractor building a £22 million relief road in Taunton that is two years behind schedule is being sued "for every day of delay".

There is still no completion date for the Northern Inner Distributor Road between Staplegrove Road's junction with Chip Lane and Priory Avenue.

Construction company Carrillion has already missed a number of target dates to hand over the mile-long carriageway to Somerset County Council and has given up predicting when the road will be finished.

County Hall leader Cllr John Osman recently wrote to council staff informing them the authority "will be taking legal action" against Carillion as the firm "has not delivered on the new road".

He wrote: "We have been tolerant in the past, but patience has now been stretched and we must stand up for the council and Somerset taxpayer."

A county council spokesman would not elaborate on the details of the legal action, but said: "We are doing everything we can within the terms of the contract to get this work finished as soon as possible and are pursuing damages from the contractor for every day of delay.

“Once the contractor has finished, we have to check for any defects and make sure the contractor fixes them.

"Until the contractor has finished its work we cannot give a completion date with any certainty.

“We can, however, confirm that the NIDR has been designed to the appropriate standards and planning requirements."

A group of councillors has been informed of the reasons behind the delays but they are subject to a gagging order preventing them from publicly revealing those details.

Meanwhile, Steve Smith, the county's technical approval engineer for bridges when the original NIDR design was drawn up, has spoken out about the problems behind a section of the road.

Mr Smith, since retired, said Carillion "offered alternative designs" for the bridge over Station Road, Firepool bridge and Chip Lane footbridge during the tender process.

Referring to the Station Road bridge, Mr Smith said the design span was increased, creating a long delay as the whole deck needed revision, while the old steel edge girders have been kept for "purely cosmetic" purposes, prolonging construction still further.

Mr Smith also said the size of the Chip Lane bridge is "excessive", while the Firepool bridge was totally redesigned, with the number of girders halved to two, making fabrication easier but construction more difficult.