Frustrated householders and business owners are claiming there appears to be "no urgency" on works to a main road into the city as some of the workmen are accused of "doing nothing".
Botley Road was shut in April 2023 as part of the redevelopment of Oxford's railway station, a £116 million project.
The road had been supposed to reopen temporarily from October 2023 to March 2024 but delays forced Network Rail to rethink and announce the closure would continue until October 2024.
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Network Rail then announced last month there would be further delays owing to the unforeseen "complexity" of the project.
The company is yet to give us a rough timescale of the delay but comments from some councillors - which Oxfordshire County Council calls "speculative" - suggest it could take more than a year.
This comes as we took some fresh photos of the building site last Saturday early afternoon when little activity appeared to be taking place.
Baroness of Cumnor Ruth Deech, who lives nearby, said: "I pointed out that the many traffic marshals who hang around by Mill Street all day - and do nothing, not even stopping cyclists riding through the passageway - could take care of any health and safety issues.
"They were dismissive."
Manager of the Westgate Hotel next to the works, Andy Jones, added: "I can see the stage they’ve got to at the moment – realistically it does look like it’s going to take another year.
"Looking at it, it looks like they’ve made very little headway.
"There seems to be no urgency.
"We had a game plan of two summers of it being closed – for it to be closed for a further year means we constantly need to go back and look at our prices and the way we’re offering rooms."
A worker at the Holly Bush pub just off Botley Road said he thought "everyone in Oxford knew it (the delay) was going to tick over".
He added: "They never finish on time."
The comments come as Network Rail has provided more information on the work currently ongoing at the rail bridge.
They say there are around 32 cables from five companies running beneath the rod under the rail bridge and that work is now underway to "install new cables".
A spokesman said that on Monday this week they had scheduled to remove sections of vegetation behind properties on Abbey Road to make way for a new walkway as part of works nearby.
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About the author
Noor is the Local Democracy Reporter for Oxfordshire who covers political stories from across the county.
She began working as a journalist in Oxford in September 2023 having graduated from the University of Oxford.
Noor was trained at the News Associates journalism school and can be found on X through the handle @NoorJQurashi
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