Council may have to 'bite the bullet' to fix Cambridgeshire flood-hit road
The road's due to reopen this weekend
A councillor is confident a Cambridgeshire road that's been flooded twice this year won't get swept away again.
Mill Lane bridge - which links Little Paxton and St Neots - has been closed since extensive flooding of the River Great Ouse last month damaged the road surface.
Parts of the surface disappeared with old cobbled road underneath exposed due to the floodwater, but Cambridgeshire County Council are planning to reopen the road this weekend.
Councillor Stephen Ferguson represents the area:
"I think they've done a great job in getting it open; there are still question marks about the quality of repairs last time but I'm hopeful they've done a proper investigation and put a more permanent solution in place this time," he said.
"In most people's view, it (flooding) will happen every year and maybe they're right, so their confidence is pretty low but my confidence is much higher and it looks to be a much better job.
"Ultimately, we have to expect that river's going to flood again."
The county council said it was necessary to allow time for the road to dry out while investigations could take place, which are now complete.
As part of the repairs, the old surface would be removed and a new road surface laid on existing concrete beneath, as well as a new kerb line installed to help what the council said "achieve a deeper, more substantial repair".
A new kerb line has also been installed to try and improve flood resilience on the road, which was previously flooded in January this year.
Cllr Ferguson believes a longer term solution may be needed.
"Given the road's going to flood again, is this fix ever going to work out and that's what we don't know yet," he added.
"The bigger question is do we have to bite the bullet and invest a lot more time, effort and money in raising that road but that's going to cause lots of disruption and cost tens of millions of pounds.
Cllr Ferguson said he's been in contact with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayor Dr Nik Johnson about improvements to the road but believes the county council needs "to do more.
"I think we're going to have to get higher levels of government involved and get more funding so we can solve this problem permanently."