Thornbury Roundabout: Frustrated Leeds commuters facing 30-minute queues due to ‘nightmare’ roadworks

Journey times have increased by up to 30 minutes in some cases around Thornbury Roundabout, between Leeds and Bradford, where a lane has been closed.

One Leeds commuter told the Yorkshire Evening Post that traffic from around 3.30pm this week was queuing from the roundabout for a long stretch across Leeds Road all the way to Bradford city centre.

The YEP spoke to motorists caught up in nose-to-tail congestion along the route at rush hour yesterday (Tuesday).

Harris, from Bradford, who was commuting to Leeds: said: “I'm on my way to work in Leeds. I've got places to be but I can't get there because of all this [the roadworks]. It's a nightmare.”

The lane closure is in place for around a month for the Yorkshire Water work, while some pedestrian crossings have also been suspended with diversions in place.

Mark, from Fagley in north east Bradford, near Eccleshill, said: “It's an absolute nightmare, I've only come to pick someone up.”

Meanwhile, Vanessa, from Bradford, who worked at a nearby shop off the roundabout, said: “It's just annoying. It took me half-an-hour to get to work yesterday, it usually takes 5 minutes. If I'd have known I would have just walked.”

The work, which started on April 7, is part of Yorkshire Water's £1.5m project to replace around 3.5km of water mains in nearby Laisterdyke.

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Jon LeMoine, senior project manager at Yorkshire Water, said: the company appreciated it was a “busy area for traffic” and that it had worked closely with the local authority highways department and contractors to plan the work to start in the school holidays, “in a bid to keep disruption to a minimum”.

He added: “This is an important investment in our network to upgrade our infrastructure and deliver the services our customers expect.”

Mr LeMoine said that replacing water mains in the area would result in “a robust and resilient network” and reduce the “likelihood of bursts and loss of supply” for residents.

Bradford City Council has been contacted for comment.