WE all like to grumble about traffic congestion and roadworks. But as our selection of pictures today show, these are not new problems.

The first photograph shows new electric tram lines being laid in Station Avenue in 1909. The men posing for the camera are presumably the engineers, or city councillors inspecting the work.

Electric trams were clearly seen as the future of urban transport in York back then - and given the state of today's congested streets, some may wish we had stuck with them.

Roads, after all, are annoyingly prone to wearing out and developing potholes - though not, thankfully, always quite as big as the one in our third photograph.

Actually, this massive hole in Trinity Lane in 1911 was caused by subsidence. The corner shop you can just seen in the distance is No 39 Trinity Lane, and Florence Row is off to the left.

Finally, we have photographs from March 2, 1912, showing the breakthrough that enabled Piccadilly as we know it today to be built (the lantern bell of All Saints' Church in Pavement can be seen in the left of the picture) and the laying of drains in Church Street on March 20, 1924.

The downed pickaxe and broom seem to indicate that even back then, British workmen enjoyed their tea-breaks.

* Pictures courtesy of the City of York Council's Imagine York website, www.imagineyork.co.uk