NATIONAL Grid was under fire this week for digging up a key town centre road in Wellington and leaving it officially closed for several days without any apparent work taking place.

South Street was shut on Tuesday (February 13) and barriers placed across the road at its High Street-Fore Street traffic light-controlled junction, and a ‘road closed’ sign placed at the mini roundabout at the Bulford junction.

The excavation was later reduced to the pavement outside an empty shop premises with a slight encroachment onto the carriageway.

Since then, National Grid engineers were conspicuous by their absence, resulting in frustration for motorists expected to divert around the town centre for no apparent reason.

The original National Grid excavation outside an empty shop in South Street, Wellington, before it was scaled back and left in an apparent state of abandonment.
The original National Grid excavation outside an empty shop in South Street, Wellington, before it was scaled back and left in an apparent state of abandonment. (Tindle News)

It led to many motorists ignoring the closure and driving through South Street, moving the cones at the traffic lights to exit or enter.

A National Grid spokesman told the Wellington Weekly: “We have been working to restore power to a shop that has been affected by an underground cable fault.

“This has meant overlaying an older cable and replacing a link box in the pavement, and that work was completed on February 14 and power restored a day later.

“Digging related to this issue has also been taking place in a nearby yard.”

The spokesman said the site had been prepared on Thursday and Friday (February 15 and 16) for tarmacking and it was expected the final surfacing works would be completed on Monday (February 19).

The spokesman defended the lengthy highway closure and said: “The road has been closed in line with highways authority requirements to ensure the safety of engineers excavating and reinstating the footpath.

“Contractors are on site this afternoon (Friday) to see if we can get the road opened over the weekend, although it will need to be closed on Monday to finish the work.

“If we can open the road temporarily we will.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

However, South Street remained closed on Saturday (February 17) with no sign of any contractors, while vehicles could be seen driving through a gap left by cones which had been move.