Emergency gas works blamed for fortnight of misery on Sheffield roads

Huge tailbacks were caused by work taking place on the A6102 Bochum Parkway at Meadowhead, close to where a new shopping centre is being built on the old Norton College site.

The long queues were initially believed to be solely down to preparations for the opening of the new £35 million St James Retail Park, which involve creating a new traffic light-controlled entrance to the complex and making adjustments to Meadowhead roundabout.

That work has been taking place since May but Howard Civil Engineering, which is carrying it out for the developer St James Securities (SJS), is prohibited from closing lanes before 9.30am or after 3.30pm so rush hour traffic is not disrupted.

However, engineers have spent the last fortnight battling to fix a complex gas leak beneath the carriageway, which is unconnected to the retail park and was finally repaired last Friday.

A spokeswoman for the local gas network Cadent, which carried out the work, said: "The leak was on a pipe buried six feet underground. For safety reasons it was very important that the leak was repaired.

"A lane closure was needed to enable us to get to the leak and to protect staff and motorists. We would like to thank drivers for bearing with us while we carried out these essential works."

The ongoing roadworks for the retail park are on course to be completed in January, according to the developer, which claims they have been causing 'minimal' disruption to traffic in the area.

Dan Murray, construction director at SJS, said: "We agreed with Sheffield Council that we're not allowed to close lanes during peak hours and we've been following these rules and will continue to do so.

"We've communicated every fortnight with local residents and anybody else who's interested to provide full details about what we've been doing on the highways and what's happening going forward.

"There has been some queuing outside peak hours but the disruption's been minimal. This contractor has been one of the best we've ever worked with."

Drivers had complained about heavy congestion on Bochum Parkway and on surrounding roads including Blackstock Road in Gleadless and Greenhill Avenue, with some saying it was taking them up to an hour to get into Sheffield city centre.

Work on the new retail park is on course to be completed next spring, with the first stores expected to open in around June.

Marks & Spencer, Aldi, Next and TK Maxx are among the big name firms which have signed up to open branches there.