Shrewsbury traffic chaos at explosion site
Monday 31st January 2011, 1:53PM GMT.
Motorists faced hours of chaos in Shrewsbury as traffic was brought to a standstill in the town centre with drivers blaming roadworks at the explosion site for the problems.
The congestion began at about noon yesterday and there were still problems at 4pm as motorists claiming work to put paving slabs in at the blast site at the corner of Smithfield Road and Bridge Street reduced the traffic to one lane.
Onlookers said traffic was at a standstill in Claremont Bank and backed up as far as the bottom of Pride Hill, with motorists then starting to ignore the restrictions in Smithfield Road and turning right after the traffic lights despite the right-hand lane being closed.
And one driver said while traffic was gridlocked outside the Quarry pool she saw motorists turn and go the wrong way on the one-way system in Victoria Avenue.
Shropshire Council today apologised for the inconvenience and said it would be discussing temporary traffic management for any future roadworks with its contractors.
One driver, who did not wish to be named, said: “It was awful. As it was such a nice day The Quarry was busy and the town centre itself was also busy but the traffic lights were obviously changing too slowly for the volume of traffic.
“It was an accident waiting to happen as frustrated drivers started going down one-way streets just to get out of the chaos.”
Gary Parton, co-ordination manager at Shropshire Council, said: “We apologise for the inconvenience.”
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