MAJOR TRAVEL DISRUPTION FROM TUESDAY AS YARBRIDGE CROSSROADS TO BE CLOSED

Motorists can expect major travel disruption from first thing tomorrow morning (Tuesday) as Yarbridge Crossroads is to be completely closed to enable emergency gas repairs. SGN has confirmed that it needs to work in the centre of the busy 4-way junction – which connects New Road, Morton Road, Marshcombe Shute and Bully’s Hill – in order to carry out urgent repairs to a low-pressure gas main. 3-way temporary traffic lights have been in place at Yarbridge since last Wednesday following the detection of a gas leak. Since then, engineers have been digging their way around in a bid to locate and repair the potentially dangerous leak. Now, the works need to move further into the carriageway which has left the utility company with no other option but to completely close the junction. It means that motorists travelling in and out of Sandown will have to divert via Bembridge. Local traffic is expected to divert around Sandown via Newchurch too. The closure will come into force at 06:00 tomorrow morning but SGN says it doesn’t know how long the repairs will take to complete. The firm says they are doing all they can to complete the repairs as quickly and as safely as possible. It’s not the first time there have been gas issues at this busy junction… Similar issues occurred in February 2021 and again in November 2022 – although SGN says the previous work was to replace a medium-pressure pipe.