Isle of Wight motorists are being urged to take alternative routes home tonight (Thursday) and to have plenty of water in the car as it is confirmed the faulty traffic lights in Newport won’t be fixed before rush hour.
The Isle of Wight Council has issued a statement reassuring motorists that every effort is being made to repair the faulty traffic lights at Link Road, where Fairlee Road connects with Medina Way.
A fault with the permanent set of lights at the busy junction resulted in Island Roads closing the small stretch of carriageway this morning. This action led to delays of 2-and-a-half hours between Ryde and Newport and general traffic chaos in the area – delays which have continued throughout the day.
A specialist mainland team with the necessary replacement parts is now attending the site with an intention to have the lights repaired overnight ready for the Friday morning rush hour.
Island Roads and the Isle of Wight Council are apologising for the inconvenience caused and are urging motorists to take alternative routes to and from Newport this evening, or to consider alternative travel arrangements altogether whilst the problem is being resolved.
The message is that motorists should ensure they have plenty of water in the car as the weather remains quite warm today and delays may be significant.
Responding to calls for temporary traffic lights to be installed, the Isle of Wight Council has said that this is not possible as the lights at this location are synchronised with those on the entire Coppins Bridge gyratory system so it is not possible to quickly introduce temporary lights without further adversely affecting all routes in and out of Newport.
Link Road is open one-way from Medina Way (the dual carriageway) to Fairlee Road this afternoon.
UPDATE @ 20:35 – The traffic lights have now been fixed and the Link Road has now reopened to traffic.
NEWPORT’S LINK ROAD TRAFFIC LIGHTS REPAIRED AHEAD OF FRIDAY MORNING RUSH HOUR
How about some temporary traffic lights or stop and go signs
That’s too much to ask lol if our useless council and island roads , might have to think out of the box .
Why don’t the police put traffic police in to direct and control the traffic to ease the chaos, they would have done in years gone by!
Just what efforts are island roads and the council making, to mitigate the effects of this situation?
“Responding to calls for temporary traffic lights … the Isle of Wight Council has said that this is not possible… without further adversely affecting all routes in and out of Newport.”
I couldn’t be any worse than it already is !!
Sounds like the council’s typical CBA attitude.
if it’s not what they want to do, of something they thought of, they won’t do it !
How can you take alternative routes when you live on fairlee road
Would Island Roads kindly indicate these alternative routes, we can only use the existing roads.
Public safety and people are at risk, What contingency was there or is there for such an event
(Remember all the p’s = Poor Preparation and planning leads to P*** Poor Performance)
It’s like living in a third world country trying to get anything done on this Island, Island roads are a bunch of cowboys and the council only care about how much power they have instead of doing the job they are paid for.
Instead of winging and moaning why don’t you just go live on the mainland and put up with their traffic jams and make more room for us people that enjoy living here
Alternative travel arrangements? On what?.Unless the Council know something we don’t, the buses use the same roads.
Always something wrong with roads can we get free bus seeing as I pay over £100 a month to struggle with travel and hear your excuses all time
its pathetic the amount of Xhit this has caused its just anather bollock job by our council just look at the floating Xrap bridge then the future st marys balls up thats about to happen costing MILLOINS of pounds which will turn out to be another totall Xuckup…
Island Roads and the Council both need to be held accountable for this travesty. This was nothing short of farcical
“The Fairlee traffic lights have now been fixed. Thanks for bearing with us and sorry for any inconvenience. @iwight”
That is island roads idea of an apology for costing the community many tens of thousands of pounds in lost productivity etc.
They should have specified and installed a robust traffic management system in the first place, with local support and maintenance to avoid a fault causing such a problem.
They should not be reliant on mainland repair organisations.
How many hours did it take to resume proper service? 18hours or more, I’ve heard. Totally inexcusable.
How much did this incident cost the Community? Far too much.
I left my shop in East cowes at 4.30, where the que for the painfully slow floating bridge was right up york avenue and had been all day. So I decided to close my business 30 minutes early in hope to get to cowes on time to collect my son. I didn’t.
Instead I sat on fairlee in the full sun…with my dog in the car for over 1 hour 30 minutes….
My god this island is badly managed!
This will affect homeowners, businesses everyone but hey…just find an alternative route!?
What a fArse the County Hall mob are. If Island toads can plumb in TTLs when replacing the TLs at Queens Road & West Street, Ryde & those at the Cedars, Wootton they can do the same in Medina Way.
There should be some sort of compensatory system where people who have lost pay, business or missed appointments be compensated by the couldn’t care less and disfunctional local authority.
Bla bla bla bla !!