Traffic chaos looms in last-minute works in Wolverhampton

A 200-metre stretch of the Penn Road heading into the city will be closed from 9.30am this morning (MON) until August 25 while BT workers dig up sections of the road and pavement in a bid to pinpoint the fault and relay cables.

The damage is believed to have been caused by water seeping into underground power cables.

Drivers have been warned to avoid the area with long tailbacks expected heading into the city for the duration of the work.

Bosses at Wolverhampton City Council say they were only made aware of the phone company's plans on Thursday and have moved swiftly to put diversion arrangements in place.

The A449 Penn Road heading into the city between its junctions with Witton Road and Rookery Lane in Goldthorn Hill.

A diversion has been put in place starting at Stourbridge Road, heading down Warstones Road, Oxbarn Avenue, Trysull Road, Bradmore Road, Merridale Road and onto Compton Road in the city.

For today only Goldthorn Hill will be closed at its junction with Penn Road, affecting traffic heading towards Penn down Goldthorn Hill, while no vehicles will be able to turn onto Goldthorn Hill from Penn Road or carry straight on from Coalway Road.

BT says it has been forced into the emergency work after a growing number of properties in the area reported being without phone lines, including the Penn Surgery on Coalway Road.

BT spokesman Paul Hayward, said: "We have had an underground cable which started to develop faults after water got into it. Due to the location of the fault we have met with the local authority to work out the best way of managing traffic to allow engineers to safely access the affected area.

"We have also been working to change out around 80 of those affected onto working parts of the cable, but there are around 150 people still without service.

"We need to install around 150 metres of replacement cable and ducting to complete the repair. We will be doing all we can to get this essential work completed as quickly as possible, and would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Tim Clark, spokesman for Wolverhampton City Council, said: "We were informed by BT on Thursday that emergency work was required to reconnect phone lines to a number of homes in the Penn area.

"Initially it was hoped a localised repair could be carried out, but because the number of people affected was increasing daily this was not possible."