Express & Star

Wolverhampton travel mayhem as Stafford Road roadworks cause three-mile tailbacks

[gallery] Hundreds of motorists heading into Wolverhampton faced travel misery today as roadworks led to queues of up to three miles on a major route.

Published

Traffic on the A449 Stafford Road was bumper-to-bumper after part of it was reduced to one lane.

Motorists heading into the city this morning complained the work added more than half-an- hour to their journeys and tailbacks were reported as far north as Coven, which is three miles away.

A broken down car at the road's junction with M54 during the morning rush-hour also added to drivers' frustrations.

The lane restriction is set to remain in place until Friday. Council chiefs say they have scheduled the scheme during the Easter holidays when less traffic is on the road.

Alex Abbott, 36, who works at Wolverhampton Business Park, was one of those caught up.

She said: "It usually takes me 35 minutes to get to work but today it took me more than an hour. I've never been so late and the traffic was horrendous. It was bumper-to-bumper from the Three Hammers Golf course all the way along the Stafford Road. It didn't help having a broken down car on the roundabout at the M54. I will be looking for a different way to get to work – I'm not going that way."

Wolverhampton City Council spokesman Gurdip Thandi said: "We appreciate these works have caused delays for motorists and we apologise for the inconvenience.

"However we did anticipate these works would cause some disruption for motorists which is why we scheduled them for the Easter holidays.

"We also advertised this through the press, our social network channel and website, as well as putting clear signage up at the scene in advance."

Speed limits along the route have already been slashed to 20 mph because too many drivers were racing through the roadworks.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.