ROADWORKS which were due to last just four weeks will continue for at least another TWO MONTHS on one of Greenock’s busiest routes.

Disruption on Inverkip Street will continue until October 12 because of delays to a £2.8m Scottish Water project to help reduce flooding.

A temporary four-way traffic light system was set up on July 9 while engineers connected new infrastructure to an existing sewer.

But a change of plan means the work, which was supposed to last for a month, will now take a further 10 weeks.

Scott Hendry, project manager with contractors Amey Black & Veatch, said: “We had planned to use a guided tunnelling machine to tunnel under the roadway and across to the roundabout where the existing sewer is located.

“Early investigations indicated that this less intrusive method of tunnelling would be possible.

“Unfortunately, that’s not been the case due to the hard, rocky ground conditions we’ve come up against and we now need to dig the 16-metre long tunnel by hand.”

The four-way lights around the High Street roundabout are causing delays along the A78 at High Street, Inverkip Street and Sir Michael Street.

Ruaridh MacGregor, Scottish Water’s corporate affairs manager, said: “Scottish Water is very sorry that we have not been able to lift the road restrictions when we had previously stated.

“However, I would emphasise that this had not been expected and is due to circumstances beyond our control.”