YORK commuters faced one of their worst-ever journeys into work today as rush-hour traffic ground to a halt, particularly in the Bishopthorpe Road and Tadcaster Road area.
And there was more bad news for road users with the revelation that roadworks in Cemetery Road will not finish on schedule this Friday.
One motorist, Lesley Beattie, said jams on Bishopthorpe Road this morning stretched as far back as Bishopthorpe Palace, and it took her an hour-and-a-half to get from Copmanthorpe to her workplace in Walmgate.
She said she saw some motorists even diverting off the road and through the back of York Racecourse in a desperate bid to escape the jam.
She said she had got used to allowing extra time for her morning journey to work since congestion had worsened in the wake of the A64 roadworks at Copmanthorpe, but today's jams were far worse than normal.
"I have never known anything like it," she said.
Peter Evely, head of highway regulation at City of York Council, confirmed there was very serious congestion this morning, with some motorists apparently parking their cars in Albemarle Road to walk the rest of the way into work.
He said he believed the jams were primarily caused by extra volume of traffic on the roads for no apparent reason.
He said junctions were already running at or above capacity, and simply could not cope with the extra vehicles.
The problems appeared to stem back from the traffic lights at the Tower Street junction near Skeldergate Bridge, but were exacerbated by several pelican crossings which were breaking up traffic flow.
He said engineers were working to change traffic light timings at the Tower Street lights to ease the flow of traffic in time for tomorrow morning's rush hour, but said motorists would probably be deterred by today's experiences and take a different route.
Meanwhile, he revealed that Yorkshire Water's roadworks in Cemetery Road will not be completed on schedule by the end of this week because of the firm's difficulties in obtaining specialist equipment.
He said the repairs to a collapsed sewer had gone well; the difficulties related to the restoration of fresh water supplies. The work was now scheduled to finish by Thursday of next week.
Updated: 14:53 Monday, November 12, 2001
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