Massive traffic jams left much of Huddersfield gridlocked.
Hundreds of drivers were stuck in long queues after a power cut yesterday put traffic lights at one Ring Road junction out of action.
The lights were at the busy junction of Castlegate and Trinity Street and were replaced by temporary lights and traffic cones to reduce the number of lanes.
Engineers worked to repair the fault which also hit 70 properties in the area, including homes and businesses.
The fault was finally corrected late yesterday afternoon.
The problems began in mid-morning yesterday and within minutes there were long traffic jams snaking down the Ring Road in both directions,
The queues stretched through the town centre and down Chapel Hill and Wakefield Road at one point.
One driver said: “Everywhere you turned, there were cars trying to avoid the queues but simply running into another one.”
Kirklees highways engineers were called out to help and a council spokesman said: “The electricity network around the Westgate area of Huddersfield sustained a major fault with the loss of several electricity supplies within that area, one of these being the traffic lights at the junction of the ring road, Trinity Street and Westgate. “Northern Powergrid are working to rectify this fault having restored several supplies, but the traffic lights remained non-operational.
“Temporary traffic lights with lane restrictions were implemented for safety reasons and to keep traffic moving. These remained in position until the supply was restored.
“Severe delays were experienced at this location with traffic backing up along adjacent routes in the area and motorists were advised to try and avoid the upper section of the ring road and find an alternative route.”
A spokesman for Northern Power Grid said: “We were alerted to an initial fault in a substation and replaced damaged fuses, but then found the fault had affected underground cables.
“The cut in supplies affected the traffic lights and also properties in the Springwood area and in Trinity Street.
“We got engineers on site very quickly and they had supplies reconnected by late afternoon.”
Drivers also faced hold-ups at road works at the junction of New Hey Road and Clough Lane, Rastrick. Gas engineers were working on a fault with mains pipes.
Gas pipe works also continue to cause partial closure of the junction of King’s Bridge, King’s Mill Lane, Damside Road and Newsome Road, Newsome, this week.
