YORK'S traffic was plunged into rush-hour gridlock again as half-term holidaymakers joined commuters on the congested roads.

Massive jams built up last night on key routes into the city centre such as Fulford Road and Hull Road, as well as the inner ring road and York Outer Ring Road.

One motorist, John Dawson, contacted the paper to say it took him half an hour to travel one mile along Fulford Road.

The February half-term is always a busy week for traffic in York, but problems are being exacerbated this time by the continuing roadworks and contraflow on the A64 at Copmanthorpe.

Peter Evely, head of highway regulation at City of York Council, said traffic volume in the city this week was 18 to 19 per cent higher than previous weeks.

He said tourists always tended to head to York this half-term, when there were additional attractions such as the Viking Festival. This was good for the York economy, but there were inevitably knock-on problems on the roads. Traffic capacity was always difficult in York, and it did not take much to push it beyond capacity. He said the closure for some days of the St George's Field car park through flooding had disrupted traffic patterns, and the A64 roadworks had "not helped."

Mr Evely said it was difficult to tell if there would be similar problems tonight, because some York motorists might change their driving patterns, and roads might be relatively clear as a result. Some York people might also take to their bikes in the fine weather, reducing congestion.

He anticipated an improvement in traffic conditions next week, when the holidays were over.

Meanwhile, there were further problems for motorists on the A19 today after a lorry shed its load of scrap metal on the southernmost roundabout of the Easingwold bypass at about 8am, blocking one lane of the roundabout.

Updated: 11:19 Friday, February 15, 2002