St Clair Hill is closed before L’Abbaye reopens

L’Abbaye by Vale Church has been causing traffic chaos for weeks, as diversions forced traffic into Braye du Valle.

A planned two-week closure of St Clair Hill from 30 May was postponed to the autumn shortly before work was due to start, as it was appreciated that having both main roads shut at the same time would cause severe traffic issues. But it was then confirmed that an urgent patch repair was required and would take place outside rush hour, but no date was given.

Yesterday morning road closure signs went up just before 9am at both ends of St Clair Hill. But L’Abbaye did not reopen until 5pm yesterday.

The move was a shock for Vale junior constable Bill Cohu.

‘It beggars belief,’ he said.

‘Why could they not have waited until Monday?’

He said it had been clear for several days that the L’Abbaye closure was nearing its end and the States should have been aware of this and changed the date of the St Clair closure.

‘I know it’s difficult and they need to do these jobs,’ he said.

‘I cycle along St Clair Hill and there are some bad pot holes and it will be nice to have them dealt with, but it would have been nice for them to wait until Monday or Tuesday.’

A Traffic & Highway Services spokeswoman said the work undertaken yesterday was urgent as the road was significantly worn.

‘We confirmed that this would be completed within a few hours outside of peak traffic times,’ she said.

‘Therefore, we closed the road this morning at approximately 8.55am in order to carry out this work.

‘An officer was on site ready for the start of works and, noting that morning rush hour was finished and traffic on the road had largely cleared, implemented the closure. Starting the work promptly would ensure a prompt finish.’