GRIDLOCK faced drivers in Poole on Tuesday as emergency work being carried out by a utility company brought motorists to a halt.

Delays of up to an hour were suffered by fuming drivers attempting to get through Herbert Avenue and Yarmouth Road.

Three-way traffic lights at the junction of Yarmouth Road and Alder Road caused chaos and some of the work is due to last until October 27.

BT is carrying out two jobs at the junction of Alder Road with Yarmouth Road and spokesman Jason Mann said the work to repair the underground network was essential but there were not large numbers of customers without service. "There is no major outage in that area," he said.

In the planned work the company is installing two new chambers underground.

"We will carry out the work as quickly as we can and do our best to keep any inconvenience to road users to a minimum," he said.

Richard Pinnegar, traffic manager Borough of Poole said: "We work closely with utility companies to coordinate planned roadworks to reduce congestion on the highway.

"However, there are occasions when urgent works are required, such as those currently being undertaken by BT at the junction of Yarmouth and Alder Road, to rectify an unplanned interruption of service for a number of their customers.”

However work being carried out in Herbert Avenue by Bournemouth Water was confined to the footpath and did not affect the traffic.

One businessman on his way to Bournemouth said: "It took me 45 minutes to get from one end of Herbert Avenue to the other."

Morebus warned of delays on its routes as drivers were unable to keep to the timetable and countless people were late for work.

"That will be why my school run took over an hour and a half this morning then (Tuesday)," commented Lorna Stacey on Facebook.

"I got stuck in it this morning (Tuesday) but I don't remember ever seeing any warning signs prior to the works starting," commented Rose Smith. "Or did I just not see them?"

Tommy Harris said: "Roads are chaos along Herbert Avenue, 40 minutes and still not at lights, what's happening?"