Sheppey's roads to be thrown into chaos today with road closure
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Huge delays
are expected on Sheppey's roads from today after a main road is
closed for repairs.
Bus operator Arriva is diverting every bus on the island from
9am today, as Minster Road is closed.
The diversions are expected to cause considerable traffic jams
at key points, causing a knock-on effect on bus services throughout
the island and even into Sittingbourne and Maidstone.
The road closure is expected to last for three weeks and the
diversionary routes are shown on Arriva's website.
The move comes on the first day of new timetables. But Arriva
says its schedules have had to be hastily re-organised, after the
firm was only told of the road closure on Friday.
Arriva's publicity manager, Richard Lewis, said: "It is
unfortunate that we have had no option but to divert our services
on the first day of our revised timetables, which are aimed to
provide some improved services and new links for our customers on
the Isle of Sheppey.
"The traffic congestion which is expected to occur at places
such as Cowstead Corner will inevitably have a detrimental effect
on the timekeeping of our services and will negate some of the
benefits which our new timetables are designed to achieve.
"We received notification of the road closure from Kent County
Council only on the afternoon of September 3 and I am sorry,
therefore, that we were unable to give advance warning of these
diversions to our customers.
"I would suggest that if anyone is travelling to appointments or
to make connections that they should allow more time for their
journey while the road closure is in place."
A Kent County Council spokesman said the work involved a
specialist crew, which will sink a 4m shaft to investigate a
problem with a pipe.
He said the reason for the short notice to Arriva was because
the specialist crew was only available at the last minute.
Friday, September 03 2010
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