EMERGENCY work by Guernsey Electricity brought traffic chaos to the Amherst School area yesterday morning.
Misery for commuters could continue for the next couple of days until the job is done.
The part of Maurepas Road that connects Guelles Road and Mont Arrive in St Peter Port had to be closed, resulting in a huge jam from the bottom of Guelles Road all the way up past Beau Sejour as far as Brock Road.
The Environment Department confirmed that it could take two or three more days for the work to be completed but it has reversed the flow of traffic in Guelles Lane, which will make it easier for drivers to get from Guelles Road to Mont Arrive, to try to ease congestion.
Amherst head teacher Tracey Moore said the jam had caused considerable disruption.
She said the school’s caretaker, who had been trying to direct traffic, had been verbally abused by a ‘road rage’ driver.
‘We had a number of children who arrived late to school because of the delays,’ she said. ‘And the caretaker reported that he had to deal with a quite nasty incident of road rage from a member of the public stuck in the queue – she was quite irate.
‘It had a lot of impact for our parents who were trying to drop off their children. They were obviously then very late for work.’
She said the emergency electricity work that caused the delay was just ‘one of those things’.
‘I did not see it myself because I was teaching, but I know it caused a lot of problems out there.’
She said that hopefully things will be better today.
An Environment spokesman said that because it was an emergency there was no way the department could have warned motorists.
‘A signing plan was implemented, as per the department’s policies. However, if the department had received advance notice of these works it would have considered implementing additional measures to ease the traffic flow, such as reversing the flow of Guelles Lane.
‘It must be recognised, however, that the department is obliged to give a minimum of 24 hours’ notice before it reverses or implements a one-way system and this obviously wasn’t possible in this case.
‘The department has arranged for extra signs to be put out in advance of the closure in an attempt to divert people prior to them reaching the closure.’
Article posted on 25th March, 2009 - 2.29pm
3 Article Comments
Walk to work chaps!
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hilarious! How rude, I got to work at 09.45.
55 mins after I set out that morning, no one died, so what’s the fuss.
Oh dear, don’t start becoming like Southern England now folks, elsewise those of us shipped in to help you will surely leave.
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“Huge jam” indeed! How spoiled we are here on Guernsey. I used to spend 2.5 hours each day on the M25 just commuting – frequently many more hours if there was a crash or roadworks. Living nearby I have been affected by the Maurepas closure every day this week, but just remind myself how easy it is most of the time to get around. I hope that the abusive lady driver has the grace to apologise to the school caretaker.
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