ANOTHER summer of traffic chaos is in store for drivers using Bushey Arches with Pinner Road to be closed down for up to three months.

The route, which runs past Bushey Station, will be totally shut to traffic throughout the "high summer" period for a complete reconstruction.

As the main route between Watford and Harrow, thousands of commuters will be forced to use alternative roads .

The only realistic option is for cars to travel up London Road and along Bushey High Street.

It means for a second summer, commuters and Bushey residents will be afflicted by severe traffic congestion.

Last year the controversial National Grid works started at Bushey Arches, shutting down half of London Road and Chalk Hill.

The job was supposed to be completed by Christmas, but is still on going, more than five months later.

At its worst, cars were queuing back to the Tesco superstore. Congestion was also heavier around the town centre ring road and along Eastbury Road.

The Pinner Road closure is not connected to National Grid and is a Hertfordshire County Council project.

Specific dates for the latest closure have not been released, but a County Council spokesman said it could start in July.

He said the work was part of a five year programme of main road maintanence, adding "there is never a good time" for disruptive but vital roadworks.

Hertsmere Borough Councillor Dr Spencer Pitfield said the work would be a disaster.

He said: "Bushey has suffered enough over the last year and a half."

And the councillor, a member of Hertsmere's ruling cabinet with portfolio for infrastructure, said he had not been informed the resurfacing was going to take place.

Watford Councillor Tony Poole said it was "exactly right" for the work to go ahead, and blamed the overlong cabling work for what will become more than a year of motoring misery.

Councillor Poole, who represents the Oxhey Ward through which the road passes, said the summer was the best time to minimise disruption.

He said the Pinner Road project had already been delayed three years.

"There doesn't seem to be any other way round it," he said.

Details of the closure caused alarm among bus users.

According to Arriva's operations manager Mike Conroy, it will be a "major inconvenience" for bus passengers.

Watford and District Bus Users' Group chairman Phil Glazebrook was critical of how roadworks in the area were being planned.

He pointed to the work currently taking place in Clarendon Road, Watford and said working during the busy day time periods caused unnecessary delays.

Mr Glazebrook called for night-time operations and said the council should have imposed planning conditions stopping heavy lorries delivering during rush hour periods.

May 23, 2002 16:00