‘Absolute carnage’ in 'ridiculous' rush hour traffic as cars bumper to bumper on major Merseyside road
People have described rush hour as “absolute carnage” after a major road was cut down to one lane, causing significant delays to people’s journeys.
Emergency gas repair works started on Crosby Road South this morning, Monday (December 16), resulting in traffic jams and cars stopped bumper to bumper.
Commuters coming into Liverpool faced heavy disruption due to a closure on the Seaforth flyover. Nose to tail queues have been reported on the southbound lanes of Crosby Road South, extending onto Princess Way and Church Road.
The flyover was closed this morning, December 16, due to emergency repairs on A565 Crosby Road South Southbound from Pritchard Avenue to A5036 Princess Way, according to traffic management system Inrix.
This resulted in significant traffic jams heading into Liverpool city centre, going all the way back to Liverpool Road in Great Crosby, Moor Park, Thornton, and Moor Lane in Ince Blundell.
Further delays have been reported on the A565 Rimrose Road Southbound, with vehicles travelling at an average speed of 10mph according to the AA Roadwatch.
The issue came to light this morning when commuters were travelling into Liverpool and reported Crosby Road South had been partitioned off and only had one lane in operation.
One person raised the issue in a private Facebook community group, writing: “Little heads up Crosby Road South is down to one lane as flyover city bound is closed and it’s down to one lane approaching Bootle, usual road works on same road.”
The post generated several comments including: “There’ll be chaos in the morning again I guess.” Another person wrote: “Just taken me an hour to get to Queens Drive from Kimberley Drive – absolute carnage.”
These sentiments were shared by another commuter who wrote: “It’s bumper to bumper from Tesco Express to past Bootle.”
An update was provided at approximately 3:30pm with many reporting the problems are ongoing. One person said: “Flyover closed and one lane going towards town.” Another posted: “It is still closed. Ridiculous.”
On Sefton Council’s Road and Street works information portal, it confirms roadworks have started on Crosby Road South and approved between December 14 to December 19.
The works are being managed by Cadent Gas, which states: “Cadent are carrying out emergency gas repair works.
“These repairs can take time to resolve, but this is to ensure that we continue to provide the safest and most reliable service to our customers.”