Motorists are facing significant delays in excess of 1 hour between Cowes and Newport this morning (Monday).
The sheer amount of traffic using Horsebridge Hill and Parkhurst Road is leading to tailbacks all the way to Northwood Garage and beyond.
Island Roads have closed Rolls Hill between Cowes and Thorness, meaning motorists are unable to circumnavigate the works at St Mary’s Roundabout by using the backroads around Porchfield.
Due to the major roadworks scheme at St Mary’s, traffic is currently unable to turn right from Parkhurst Road into Forest Road, which is leading to heavier traffic on the temporary roundabout. Temporary traffic lights are also in operation.
The suspension of the Cowes Floating Bridge also means that all domestic and commercial traffic travelling between Cowes and East Cowes must travel through Newport.
Southern Vectis’ Route 1 buses are delayed.
UPDATE – Island Roads say that they have put extra resources in place to ensure tree safety work at Rolls Hill will be completed today by 15:30 today.
The work was required to keep the network safe, say the PFI contractor.
UPDATE @ 15:10 – Rolls Hill has now re-opened to traffic in both directions.
Thank you Cllr. Ward!
Absolutely genius
And we are supposed to be welcoming holiday makers back ? Gave up after an hour and half and went back to Cowes .
spot on Mark !
The ideal opportunity to get on with the work and wrap it up was during lockdown- construction workers were able to work right from the beginning.
Why on earth does someone at island roads decide to shut an escape route road – reckon they stick a pin in a map on Monday mornings and go for it…
Only island roads could manage that
Island roads we don’t love you sort this crap out
You couldn’t make it up – Island road shambles
Yes it’s a shambles. But the fault lays at the feet of our dear Isle of Wight Council. Wait till it’s all finished and the traffic lights are on the go. This and Coppins Bridge will make it worse. The council should have sorted out Coppins first – a long ,long time ago.
yes of couse it should of been biffens bridge first but they would,nt have a clue how to sort it out most probably more money went into their pockets from this bullsup..
Is there no communication or basic panning at island roads or do they not care about any knock on effect it would have on other roads with the ammout of traffic there is now. honestly you couldn’t make it up is it run by clowns
Communication, your joking they have enough trouble using a spade doing roadworks, let alone trying to use a phone or send e-mails
This was in the Press Rolls Hill Rd would be closed for three days please go another way round it’s grid lock I live here
Oh what way do you suggest!!
Not many options left really !! I live here too !
Try Noke Common
You obviously haven’t tried it traffic backed up to roundabout at junction with Rew Street so what route do you suggest now
I must have been lucky went to gurnard this morning but went and come back down Rew Street very busy but got through
Noke Common has been virtually at a standstill all day….
Really the traffic at one point was past Northwood Garage.
Tough live with it
Absolute joke!! The island is bad enough with this stupid roundabout update let alone closing every other route in and out!
I’ve been expecting chaos since I first saw work planned for Pallance road, Rolls Hill and Whitehouse road all during August. Don’t Island Roads employ anybody to co-ordinate? If they don’t they should. If they do they need replacing.
All because of road works that never needed doing except to line somebody’s pockets
Absolute disgrace Island Roads are let’s do hedge trimming when there’s chaos at St Mary’s and the Floating Bridge is out of service. Beggars belief but they and the Council don’t give a toss.
You would have thought the police would be out directing traffic but no they are most probably looking to see if people are social distancing and its such a shame that all the good lockdown did to the pollution levels has been undone in just a few hours
It’s not a job for the police, they are stretched enough already. Island Roads should have carried this out either during lockdown or at night.
Night work may have inconvenienced some by the noise but I’d rather have noise than pollution from traffic at a standstill.
Emergency services will have a nightmare getting to and from the hospital!
I’m sorry but in the past the police always used to control the traffic when there was a problem like this. I suppose it’s a sign of the times that means they can’t possibly help the public
Police only direct traffic in an emergency not in stupidity. Island roads have enough staffempowered to direct traffic.
Use the Staff from the floating bridge to direct traffic, there is enough of them and they not busy at the moment…..
This is total incompetence how are you supposed to get from Northwood to Carisbrooke for a dental appointment today. The whole of the north of the Island is gridlocked. This is such an utter shambles someone deserves to be fired. What is so important on Rolls Hill it needs to be closed.
Na taxes up again line their pockets….
I think they are cutting trees back
WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HOLIDAYS ??? WE CANNOT GET ANYWHERE NOW. TOTALLY STUCK. A GREAT WAY TO WELCOME HOLIDAY MAKERS BACK TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT!!!! SO ANGRY !!
Thanks island roads for yet again affecting my business in Porchfield
You’re not in traffic, you are traffic.
Clever organisation as usual ..an hour !!! Its taken me 30 minutes to get from the range to northwood garage ..Get Rolls hill open asap totally ridiculous
Wonder what they would do if we all went and parked up outside their offices and yard.
They are not fit for purpose.
I think island roads are doing a great job fixing our roads well done Boys
All these islanders moaning like normal !!
If you really are our MP you should think before branding your constituents as moaners. We are residents and small business owners who are trying to make a living
It’s an obvious wind up mate. It’s going to get worse before it gets better . Feel sorry for all businesses and residents that are affected. Nothing we can do the Council won’t take any notice. Proved that by totally ignoring the high percentage of people against St. Mary’s Roundabout and went ahead. All things are signed and sealed before the public are informed.
Maybe the workers are doing a good job, but the management should learn from them.
Co-ordination on just about every site they operate on is appalling.
Ratepayers are not getting proper value from the contractors.
But the workers aren’t doing a good job. I went through on Friday, 9 men in attendance, 2 working!! Some days there are only 2 or 3 visible workers – no wonder it is taking so long
hope your taking the pissss every road they have bogged are nerly all subsided brocken crap after just months of being redone absolutely useless
some of the carparks look nice …but then they dont get alot of hard use…unlike the treacle spread on our old decrepid roads…
parisites like you bob should be getting money out of the government for a bridge across the river medina, but like all mp’s you see it as a way to get a nice fat pension and line your pockets at the expence of the taxpayer.
You do know that isn’t really Bob Seely posting don’t you?
Isle of Wight council, the words piss up and brewery spring to mind. What a colossal balls up.
On holiday, last day to go and spend some money on your island.
Had planned lunch in ventnor.
Gave up and went back.
Not very clever for tourism when so few can go abroad and you make them regret going away domestically. There was a real chance to.impress people and keep them coming back.
Such a shame.
Thank you for your patience and understanding. Yeh right.
Booze ups in Breweries.
well done to the useless hopeless pathetic council to allow this what about emergency srvices ? people could die im looking out my winowd its unbeliveable all directions porchfield nokes commom cowes blocked well done to all useless the lot of em..
cant wait for the new roundabout when fully open with traffic light system thats going to work well is,nt it …..not a hope in hell
all the poor bugger trying to work go to work come homr from work buncj of Twaatss…
If island roads didnt shut all the roads at peak times, they wouldnt be able to ask for a bigger budget next year!
I was stuck in the traffic tried different routes with no joy island road signing is a joke as always the road was only shut to cut down tree surely this warranted a night time closer
Just be thankful that this wasn’t taking place during festival week. When it’s all done I bet you there be an accident there on the first day, due to no one knowing which lane they should be in or where they’re going
Come on island roads..sort this mess out and open the roads to let the flows through.
You could write a library about how useless our council is.
WHY!!! This could have been done at night
And the weekends then it would have been finished for the summer holidays
What cut trees back you are joking guys with chain saws that would be bloody dangerous
It’s just taken me 2 hours to get from Gurnard to Shanklin absolute traffic chaos. Great of Island Roads to close Rolls Hill at the same time in August you couldn’t make it up
Great co-ordination between all the planners. Can those of you who control the floating bridge, Island Roads and Tree Felling services please speak to one another and avoid, or at least minimize, these disruptions. What are all you doing?
3hr drive from Cowes to Ryde. Passed one digger breaking up tarmac near the hospital. And the 9 road workers all doing short pathway in Wootton. Poor shop owners in Cowes. You don’t deserve this.
If we only had a bridge from East to West Cowes none of this would happen, 9 million pounds of our money wasted at stMarys on a stupid road change that will only make things worse.
Back in 1976 there was talk of a bridge from East Cowes to Cowes. Here we are 44 years later with no sign of one. I believe an area from East Cowes to Kingston Mills was mentioned. If I’m wrong can someone please correct me.
Well done island roads again, 2 hours to get from cowes to pan estate, you only had 3 months during lockdown to do essential tree work lol, firm is a –cking joke
“we need new roads, our roads are terrible” Months later with a grant from the government “All these road works are terrible”………….
Laughable really!
Bravo
No circus this year, so IR took up the challenge. Only planning they take, is maximum congestion. When its finally finished a utility company or fibre come back and cause further damage.
Selfish, ignorant, arragant, brain dead jobsworths comes to mind.
I asked my Grandson what he wanted for his birthday. He said a cowboy outfit please. I told him I would buy him Island roads! All this and the downs road shut for 5 days while they resurface Newport shute. But the Downs Breezer buses were allowed through. Unbelievable a company could be this incompetent.
Run by a bunch of unorganised monkeys
They could have warned people… They are either incompetent or have a very sick sense of humour….
We need to bombard the council and Island Roads with emails and complaints every time that they get something very badly wrong, such as today’s fiasco.
Venting on here just won’t help, and both organisations can choose to ignore these comments anyway.
For your convenience, here are the links for emailing both organisations
https://www.iow.gov.uk/Council/OtherServices/Council-Complaints/Complaint
[email protected]
You could also contact a news outlet, such as ITV Meridian. I’m sure the council and visit Isle of Wight won’t want bad publicity…
Interestingly, if you do submit a complaint to the council, it is kept on file for 6 years, so plenty of time to see if they actually follow your complaint up!
Looks like the Cowes floating bridge saga is also set to continue, with no date set for it’s return due to further investigations being required!
Are you sure it is 6 years – I thought it was 6 minutes!
compleat muppets, why did we ever employ Island Roads, get rid of them,
PS i am a robot
This is what happens when people in charge have no one to answer to!!!! Do what suits them and to hell with everyone else!!! All but sorry for the delays!! ( not really )
All they had to do was turn the traffic lights off at the roadworks. When the work is finished the new lights will cause miles of tail-backs. As a small point approx 15% OF OUR COUNCIL TAX GOES ON PAYING COUNCIL EMPLOYEES PENSION FUND. Are we getting value for money i think not
Took me over 2 hours to get from work in cowes to home in Newport centre,the roads over here are completely messed up ,who thought of traffic lights just before a major roundabout and also shutting the back way round in the middle of the day as well as the the floating bridge being suspended ???who the f is organising this the bloody telly tubbies could do better and they don’t even talk human
Island roads plan to close Pallance road 2 days from 17th Aug for bt works we’ll have it all again f.wits
Funny how the Whippingham and West Cowes councillors have no comment on the floating
bridge!! Could they have been involved in the white elephant.