Elmbridge News
Walton bridge re-opened for evening rush hour
4:55pm Monday 20th February 2012
The lane closure that caused traffic chaos around Walton this morning has now been removed.
Veolia Water put up temporary signals as it worked to divert a water main, but commuters were left furious at the lack of communication.
The delays added hours to people’s travel time and made hundreds of people late for work.
A Surrey County Council spokesman said: “We are very sorry that motorists were so inconvenienced this morning, but it was largely beyond our control.
“Veolia carried out some work overnight on Wednesday and vacated the site first thing on Thursday as we had instructed them to do. Unfortunately there appear to have been some issues with the reinstatement of the hole that had been dug, requiring their return to repair it.
“On Sunday morning, Surrey Police contacted our contractors to say that the repair had failed again, and our contractors sent out a team which was unable to fill the hole immediately as it was too large. They therefore put the signals up for safety.
“Unfortunately they were unable to contact Veolia on Sunday, but we contacted Veolia first thing this morning and gave them until 4.30pm today to carry out the repair.”
The work has now been completed and Veolia apologised for the inconvenience.
Read Thursday’s Elmbridge Guardian for the full story.