L’Aumone junction closure causes commuter chaos

But there are hopes that part of the junction will reopen today.

The busy crossroads was first shut temporarily on Thursday night due to a suspected gas leak, and was closed again following rush hour on Friday morning to allow Guernsey Energy engineers to investigate the problem.

The closure means that motorists travelling down Rectory Hill are required to divert into La Neuve Rue, where a temporary 20mph speed limit is in operation.

Additionally, a diversion along Les Baissieres to the north of the closure is in place, with the route seeing long traffic queues yesterday morning as commuters travelled to work.

There was still a strong smell of gas along L’Aumone yesterday afternoon.

A Guernsey Energy spokesman said that a team from the company had worked over the weekend, with emergency repairs now completed.

‘The winter weather and varied temperatures can cause movement in the network and that’s when we can get some gas escapes,’ he said.

‘This is expected within any gas network.’

Work at the site is due to be finished today, with part of the road expected to re-open.

Some resurfacing work will be needed on the other side of the road, which is expected to take a few more days.

Residents living along La Neuve Rue said that, while the closure had proved to be inconvenient, they had not yet experienced any problems with an increase in traffic.

John Gaskin, who has lived along the road for six years, said that other than a longer car journey to Melrose School for him and his daughter yesterday morning, he had personally not been too disrupted.

‘I work from home most of the time so it’s not been too bad.’

He hoped that motorists would adhere to the temporary 20mph speed limit along the road while the work was carried out.

‘Closures have been a problem everywhere on the island, it’s just one of those things.’

Fellow La Neuve Rue resident Emma Mansfield, who has lived on the road since 2019, said that the closure had caused some confusion for both her and her 12-year old son with regards to bus routes.

‘My son nearly missed his school bus but luckily it diverted back so he was able to get on it.

‘I usually get the bus to work too and currently I don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow morning, but I’ll work it out.’

She added that the biggest concern she had about the closure was the impact it could have on her two pet cats.

‘I’ve had three cats run over in the past. I just hope the problem is fixed quickly and things go back to normal.’