Works on Majors Corner has been delayed until next spring
A £21.5m scheme to tackle road congestion will be delayed again after hitting a "stumbling block".
A vital stage of the project - installing a new traffic light system to co-ordinate junctions around Ipswich - will not begin until next year.
Conservative-led Suffolk County Council said the project design had taken longer than expected.
Labour councillor, Sandra Gage, said she believed part of the scheme "may have been cancelled altogether".
Ms Gage said: "Residents have had to put up with years of disruption for a half-finished scheme few can see the benefits of."
James Finch, Suffolk County Council's member for transport, said it had been a "difficult but sensible" decision to postpone the latest phase of the work at Majors Corner and Argyle Street.
"This is a complex project which has simply taken longer to design than any one of us hoped," he said.
"To start works on one of the busiest junctions in the town, just as schools go back, is not something we are prepared to do."
Work at Woodbridge Road and Argyle Street was due to start in the summer
Travel Ipswich, which began in 2012, uses a computer system to control traffic lights, give priority at junctions for buses and includes improvements to cycling routes
Work at the Majors Corner and Woodbridge Road and Argyle Street junctions has been postponed until spring 2016.
Starting the work now would have meant it would have affected the Tour of Britain cycling race through the town next month and would run into the festive period.
The Department for Transport has given £18m to the project, the council is spending £2.5m and a further £1m has been generated from other sources, including Ipswich Borough Council.
- Published24 September 2014
- Published13 September 2012
