Long delays on roads into Helston due to burst water main

UPDATE 12 noon: The traffic lights have been reported locally as removed and that traffic is starting to ease. We will continue to monitor the situation. 

There are long delays on roads into Helston this morning (Wednesday) with drivers reportedly taking up to an hour to get through roadworks.

It is due to emergency repair works by South West Water at the top of Meneage Road, due to a burst water main, close to Helston Community Hospital.

Three-way traffic lights are in place, causing delays in every direction.

Describing the roads as "absolutely carnage", one person reported queues down Meneage Road and onto The Furry in the Penzance direction, past the Premier Inn and May Tree on the relief road and as far as Helston Football Club earlier this morning.  

Particularly badly hit has been the road past RNAS Culdrose, the A3083, heading from the Lizard Peninsula.

One person coming from St Keverne reported: “I was just on it for 35 minutes, now got to get in it again to go home.”

Another estimated that it took them an hour to get through the traffic lights after joining the queue.

One said traffic was “stop-start” from just past the Gunwalloe turning earlier this morning.

Traffic is very heavy past RNAS Culdrose this morning (Image: Supplied)

There are similar problems in the other directions, with the A394 reported as “chaos.”

One driver wrote: “Avoid heading past the tip, road in chaos. Better heading through on to Falmouth Road.”

Although problems were intensified over the traditional ‘rush hour’ period, as people tried to get to work for 9am, congestion remains heavy due to an increased volume of cars on the roads during the peak summer holiday season.

Traffic monitoring system INRIX is reporting: “Queueing traffic on A394 Clodgey Lane both ways from Meneage Road to B3297 Clodgey Lane, in the roadworks area.”

A week-long traffic order from Cornwall Council has been put in place from today, running until 11.59pm next Tuesday (August 13).

However, while this gives permission for work to carry on until then, this does not mean that South West Water will need all the time to complete the job.