Traffic chaos along Penn Road

This was the scene of traffic chaos along Wolverhampton's busy Penn Road today as drivers were stuck in miles of tailbacks because of roadworks.

Motorists have spoken of their nightmare journeys along the route, as they prepared for another 18 months of road misery.

Queues tailed back for two miles during rush hour this morning after roadworks by Severn Trent over-ran, because an underground BT cable was damaged.

Traffic was still heavy this afternoon heading out of the city because of the four-way temporary traffic lights.

One driver, who was stuck in jams for more than 40 minutes today, said: "It normally takes 10 minutes to get along the road but today was an absolute nightmare.

"The traffic was literally not moving. The Penn Road has been a real problem recently because of other roadworks, it was taking so much longer to get in and out of the city centre last week because of the work.

"There are more to come which is going to cause even more grief."

Drivers recently faced long delays along Penn Road after four-way temporary traffic signals were installed at its junction with Coalway Road for a project by National Grid to replace gas mains.

The scheme, which lasted two weeks, was completed on Sunday. Severn Trent Water has announced a £4million project to replace around 16 miles of ageing water mains in roads under Penn.