City traffic chaos as burst water main is repaired
WORK to repair a burst water main on one of the busiest routes in and out of Cardiff caused traffic chaos yesterday.
Welsh Water engineers worked through Monday night and into yesterday on the burst pipe in Newport Road.
A spokesman said: “Dwr Cymru Welsh Water apologise for the continued disruption caused by a burst water main at the junction between Newport Road and Ipswich Road in Cardiff.
“We have temporary traffic-lights in place whilst we continue to carry out repairs, we will keep you updated.”
Traffic was seen queuing around eastern parts of the city as a result.
Bus passenger Julie Whitcombe arrived at work just after 10.30am as her normal 35-minute journey to work took nearly three hours.
She said: “It is crazy just how much chaos can be caused by just one lane closure.”
Mike Williams said: “I left the house at 8.35am to get to town. Arrived just after 10am but this was only by heading to Newport on the M4 to junction 31 and down North Road. After 30 minutes being stuck in the horrible traffic I decided it might be best. Still late for my appointment, though.”
Kath Winson was taking her child to school from Ely to Llanishen. She left the house at 7.30am and didn’t get home until 10.06am.
One commuter said it took them more than an hour to get from Llanrumney to Old St Mellons, while another took 45 minutes to get from Rumney to St Mellons.
There were also problems with a burst water main in the Cyncoed area of the city.
A Welsh Water spokesman, speaking yesterday morning, said: “We are still doing emergency repair work on the burst water main on the four-way junction leading from Newport Road in Cardiff (CF23 9AE) to Ipswich Road.
“We have been working overnight again but this is an extremely difficult repair given the location of the burst and safety measures that need to be put in place.
“While water supplies to those handful of business customers that were affected have been restored, we still have a temporary traffic-light system in place between Newport Road and Ipswich Road.
“This will be in place throughout the day and we will keep issuing updates to customers on our social media platforms.
“We are sorry about the inconvenience this is causing, and working as quickly as we can to finish the emergency repair.”
All three lanes had reopened by 3pm.