Drivers snarled up by double whammy (From Worcester News)

Drivers snarled up by double whammy

12:30pm Thursday 19th April 2012 in News By Neil Watts

FAMILIAR STORY: National Grid roadworks in the Tything, Worcester (15012010)

EXISTING roadworks and back-to-school traffic have left Worcester city centre roads heavily congested this week.

Bumper-to-bumper conditions were experienced at times on Tuesday, with people travelling on Bath Road, City Walls Road, London Road and the Tything particularly affected.

Jon Fraser, highways manager at Worcestershire County Council, says the higher volume of school traffic may have taken some motorists by surprise and combined with continuing roadworks to create the busy road conditions.

He said: “There was nothing out of the ordinary but it could have been a knock-on from the gas work on the Tything and it was also the day that most schools went back after the Easter holidays.

“That would account for most of the traffic on the roads and there is nothing else we are aware of in the city centre.”

National Grid is working to replace old metal gas mains with new, harder-wearing plastic mains on the Tything, which has seen the introduction of temporary traffic lights at the junction with Castle Street, St Mary’s Street and Foregate Street.

Work on the £100,000 project is expected to be completed by Friday, May 4, when work to replace lighting on Worcester Bridge will continue.

Anyone travelling across the bridge between 9am and 4.30pm can expect slower journey times, with a single lane due to be closed to vehicles heading from Hylton Road and Tybridge Street into the city centre.

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