Lorry crash, cruise ships and road works cause city centre chaos

They have been asked to avoid the trouble spot until queues have cleared.

A spokesman for the city's highway contractor Balfour Beatty said:  “If your journey isn’t essential I would delay it for a few hours until the traffic has cleared.”

A lorry crash couples with three cruise ships in the city and then major road works brought mayhem in and out of the city.

Tailbacks stretched back miles and roads chiefs urged drivers to stay clear.

The Highways Agency said queues went from Dock Gate Four as far back as Redbridge roundabout.

A lorry collided with a Mercedes in Southern Road at around 10am but no one was injured.

Combined with the arrival of three cruise liners in the city docks, combined with other delays, it led to widespread disruption on the city's roads.

The three ships in the city today at Queen Mary 2, Oceana and Aidasol.

On its Twitter feed, Southampton City Council's highways team has said there is an “ongoing security operation” within Dock Gate Four which has added to the chaos.

But police later confirmed it was just traffic checks by officers.

Motorists are being urged to avoid going into the city centre, as the disruptions stretch as far as Itchen Bridge in the east and the Millbrook Flyover in the west.

One motorist has reported taking two hours to travel just six miles.

Bluestar buses have also reported delays on theBluestar 6 services due to to the queus.

Motorist Michael Rowe said much of the gridlock was being caused by a new traffic light system which has been put in place as part of work to turn Platform Road and Town Quay into a dual carriageway.

He said it had taken him 50 minutes to get from the entrance to the West Quay shopping centre on West Quay Road to Queen's Park, next to Platform Road.

He said: "It's absolute chaos - I can't understand how this can be allowed to carry on.

"They need police officers down here to try and deal with this. It can't be good for the cruise ship passengers. It's gridlocked."

The spokesman for Balfour Beatty added: "These are unusual circumstances, such as the fact there three cruise liners in and the security operation at Dock Gate Four, which are out of our control, but we are looking at how the junction at Platform Road and Town Quay works going forward.

"But we do have to have some form of traffic lights to allow traffic to move out of the docks."