Fury as Chesterfield grinds to a halt following closure of A617 Hasland by-pass

Traffic has been building since early this morning and there is now long queues on the Horns Bridge Roundabout.

Posting on the Derbyshire Times Facebook page, Andrew Frost wrote: “Is there any traffic management in place? Cars haven’t moved for over an hour now.”

Bev Deveaux-Smith wrote: “There’s a few cones and no lights, I would have thought they would have left the lights or put up temporary ones to aid with traffic flow.”

Simon Hadfield posted: “That’s because people do whatever their satnav tells them and panic when they can’t go that route. It’s been signposted for weeks.”

Laura Monks wrote: “It’s rained so they can’t even do it! I’m going to go long way round to places I need to go.”

Pete Mccrave posted: “We still got hundreds coming down Hasland road they just go around the road closed sign and then cause chaos doing u-turns when they realise it’s closed.”

The eastbound carriageway – from the A61 Horns Bridge Roundabout in Chesterfield towards junction 29 of the M1 - is closed from 5am to 11pm today (July 15) for surface dressing.

The westbound carriageway – from junction 29 of the M1 towards the A61 Horns Bridge Roundabout in Chesterfield - will close at the same times on Sunday (July 16), also for surface dressing.

When the road reopens some lane closures will be in place to manage the traffic through the newly-laid surface.

Work to sweep the road of loose chippings and replace road markings is scheduled to start on Monday 17 July. While this is done, both directions of the by-pass will close between 7pm and 5am from Monday 17 July to Sunday 30 July. Signed diversions are in place. The diversion is the A61 Horns Bridge to Clay Cross, Harris Way, Bridge Street, Furnace Hill Road, the A6175 Market Street to the A6175 Heath Road and the A617 Heath Roundabout, and vice versa. Other local roads are useable by light traffic.