A businessman who wants to build a toll road to alleviate traffic woes on the Kelston Road has said he is pressing ahead with the project despite claims it will reopen by the end of the year.
Mike Watts, who runs several businesses in the Guildhall Market, said he is in talks with architects about building a temporary toll road through a field adjacent to the A431 Kelston Road.
The road has been closed since February following a landslip which caused large cracks to appear along the road.
Mr Watts, along with farmer John Dinham, want to build 400 yards of a temporary road made from recycled aluminium plates.
The two men have teamed up on the project because of a perceived lack of action by Bath and North East Somerset Council.
B&NES is due to announce this month the results of soil samples taken from below the Kelston Road along with its plans for repairing the road.
Speaking to ITV West Country leader of the authority, Councillor Paul Crossley, said any temporary road would need the correct permissions and claimed the road would be reopened by the end of the year.
He said: "We plan to have this road driveable again before the Christmas season."
More than 7,000 cars, which use the Kelston Road each day, have been forced onto other routes to travel between Bath and Bristol.
Mr Watts said the traffic problems facing drivers were unbearable.
"It's all well and good to say the road will be open by Christmas but the impact it is having on daily family life is too much."
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