AN investigation was continuing today into why drainage work started during the rush hour - causing traffic chaos in York city centre.

Hundreds of frustrated motorists suffered massive delays on Tuesday after engineers began repairing a drain in Fulford Road at the busiest time of the day and not during off-peak hours.

Huge tailbacks were reported along two of York's main thoroughfares, Hull Road and Fulford Road, which backed traffic right back into the heart of the city.

Council chiefs originally blamed Yorkshire Water for the chaos, but it has emerged that they were nothing to do with the drainage work.

A City of York Council spokeswoman said: "I can now confirm that further investigations have revealed that the work was in fact being carried out by Environmental Solutions of Wetherby, and not Yorkshire Water as previously stated.

"We apologise sincerely to Yorkshire Water for the inaccuracy of the information supplied yesterday, but can confirm that we are still carrying out investigations to ascertain why the work started at peak times."

A spokeswoman for Yorkshire Water said: "We're pleased that this has been sorted out."

Updated: 10:18 Thursday, October 28, 2004