The five-week closure of a major road into a town began today.

Contractors working for SGN closed the Loose Road, A229, south of Maidstone, at 10am.

The road is shut between the Wheatsheaf junction and the junction with Cripple Street by the Swan pub for “emergency” gas main repairs.

Currently, access to the Sainsbury’s supermarket within the closed section is still possible both by foot and by car.

So far, traffic on the Loose Road, on both sides of the closure, is flowing smoothly, but motorists who ignored signs warning that Cripple Street was not a suitable road for a diversion soon regretted their decision.

Traffic was gridlocked on the lower narrow section of Cripple Street and Teasaucer Hill, where there are several places where the road is too narrow for two cars to pass.

Drivers heading north towards town met similarly determined motorists trying to get up the road from Tovil.

In contrast, the closed section of the A229 was extremely peaceful with no traffic.

One resident said: “It’s never been so quiet. It’s lovely.”

Another said: “It’s like a ghost town. It’s a bit weird.”

The official diversion is via the A229 to the A262 and then to the A249.

It is the second time that drivers have had to contend with the closure of Loose Road this year.

It was closed on April 18 for six weeks for gas main repairs on a different section of the road.

Our reporter at the scene said most of the work was going on at the Wheatsheaf end of the road and the lids of inspection chambers had been lifted in a number of places and cordoned off.

The closure is only one of a raft of closures for a variety of reasons bringing chaos to much of Maidstone’s road network today.

The situation is expected to become more fraught once the afternoon rush hour begins, and motorists will be well advised to avoid the area completely, no matter how long the detour.