Tunnel fire causing gridlock

The main road in and out of North Wales is the A55. If something goes wrong with it, the area is in trouble. I remember one Christmas period when it was so wet that it flooded. It also flooded the secondary road: the A5. Oh dear! Luckily that was sorted before I tried to return home from the Netherlands. 

I also remember that someone high on drugs once stole a car and crashed it in one of the tunnels. Chaos ensued! 

With that in mind it is remarkable that when I glanced a headline about a vehicle fire in the Conwy Tunnel I did not think too much more about it. I just got through my working day and then set off towards home. 

On a small country lane I ended up in a traffic jam. A van tried to get past a car, and that only just worked. And on both sides there were vehicles waiting. You never get that much traffic there! Still I didn’t put 2 and 2 together. 

Unusual levels of traffic on the little country road

I proceeded to Bethesda. And the through fare was gridlocked! It wasn’t so bad for me, as I could also use the pavement, but the motorised vehicles were pretty stuck. I put this on the local chat, and Martin then pointed out that must've been because of the tunnel fire. Of course it was!

Too much traffic in the village. Picture by Chris Owen.

It turned out that a crane lorry had caught fire. Luckily, no one was hurt, but the tunnel was now closed in both directions. And now all the traffic was trying to find alternative routes. And then you are quickly reminded of that we are on the route between London and Dublin. All the lorries that go to, or come from Holyhead normally use the A55. And now they were trying to squeeze through the village!

Susan was actually on annual leave, so she didn't have to negotiate the traffic. Martin later mentioned it had taken him 1:45 hours to get home. That is so frustrating! It should be half an hour. Colleagues living even further east seem to have taken 3:45 hrs to get home.

I sort of figured I had hit this traffic at rush hour, and that later on it wouldn't be so bad. And I had to get to Llanberis in the evening, for the Thursday Night Hill session! By car.

When I had to leave I pointed my car in the land inward direction, but traffic was stationary. And then I figured I might as well go the other way around, and that was fortunate; the road was clear in the other direction. And it was such a long run I was fairly certain the problem would be solved to such an extent I would be able to get home without trouble, but I was wrong. I approached the village from one side, thought the better of it, went to the other side, and then had to stand in a traffic jam for a bit. I had decided that if I would approach the A5 and it would be gridlocked I would just drive to the vicinity of my house on a parallel road and just park up, walk the rest. But I didn't need to.

As I'm writing this, half of the tunnel has now reopened, so there is one lane of traffic in either direction. That's better than nothing! But it is still very detrimental to local traffic. I hope inspections will reveal that the actual tunnel hasn't suffered any significant damage, and that they can reopen the entire thing soon. It is a bit of a bottleneck, and the area is just not the same if it's not fully functioning!