Traffic chaos sparked by A27 closure

Staff at Arun Leisure Centre said customers had complained about their journey times to the centre in Felpham on Saturday.

"One children's party was running over an hour late because people were stuck in traffic backed up from Littlehampton into Felpham," said manager Andrew Smith.

The Highways Agency recorded the busiest queuing time on Saturday on the A27 westbound carriageway when traffic reached about 2.5 miles in length.

On the diversion route, the A259 in Bognor was busy throughout the day due to the road works.

"We are now in the process of reviewing the work done over the weekend including the traffic management before the next weekend closure of September 26 to 29 to minimise disruption," said a spokesman.

MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton Nick Gibb said the chaos caused by the A27 railway bridge closure, and the knock-on effect to the A259, highlights the need for an Arundel bypass.

"What was astonishing was how the closure of one bridge in Arundel dramatically impacted on the traffic in Bognor and Littlehampton," he said.

"It shows the desperate need for a bypass and how overstretched the road network from Worthing to Chichester already is."

Mr Gibb drove from Bognor to Littlehampton via the A27 at Climping and said traffic jams caused his journey time to increase by 20 minutes more than usual.

"It was one of the few warm weekends of the summer and it was unfortunate that good weather coincided with the A27 road closure, which probably made the traffic situation worse," he added.

A Surrey resident, Julian Shersby, also joined the queues of traffic when he travelled from his home in Dorking to the outskirts of Arundel.

He told the Observer he has complained to the Highways Agency in 'the strongest possible terms' about their 'general miserable failure' to adequately advance-sign the closure of the A27 appraoching it from the east or north," he said.

Arundel traders felt the impact of the road closure between 8pm on Friday night and 6am on Monday morning with lower sales compared to normal weekend trade. Castle Chocolates in Tarrant Street reported lower than average sales across the weekend despite offering discounts to customers to attract them to the town.

Owner of Pallant of Arundel wine merchants in the High Street, Jonathan Brantigan, estimated his business had suffered 20 per cent less trade than during a standard weekend.

"We did have locals and people from further a field in to see us, but sales were definitely less than usual.

"With nice weather we would have expected the town to have been busier.

"We are continuing to push the message that Arundel is still open for business," he said.

Mr Brantigan said he, along with other Arundel traders, hoped shoppers would not abandon the town next weekend during the second bridge closure.

Diversions

A fully signed diversion route will be in place during each closure.

*Westbound traffic on the A27 will be directed off the A27 at the Crossbush Interchange onto the A284 heading southbound to join the A259 heading westbound.

*Traffic will continue along the A259 through Bognor Regis to join the A29 Shripney Road northbound.

*Traffic will continue northbound on the A29 until the junction with the A27 at Fontwell to continue westbound.

*Eastbound traffic along the A27 will use the same route in the opposite direction.

*A second advisory diversion route as well as the A284/A259/A29 diversion will be in place during the weekend closures.

*For westbound road users this will encourage them to leave the A27 to join the A280 to join the A259 westbound to join the A29 northbound where they will rejoin the A27 at Fontwell.

*Eastbound road users will leave the A27 at Fontwell to join the southbound A29 to join the A259 eastbound where they will join the A280 to rejoin the A27near Worthing.

*The advisory diversion route will not be in operation during the day on Saturday 13 September due to a local event at Littlehampton.

*On weekdays there will not be any daytime traffic restrictions, however between 8.00pm and 6am some works may be carried out using temporary traffic lights.

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