Police officers have been drafted in to direct traffic in an attempt to ease gridlock caused by the Belco roadworks.

Motorists are being asked to keep Trimingham Hill roundabout clear and to follow officers’ signals as the cable work heads west towards Stowe Hill. Drivers have faced lengthy delays in the past few days as the trench work has clogged up one of the Island’s busiest arteries.

Belco is replacing its ageing cables to upgrade its power transmission system from King Edward VII Memorial Hospital in Point Finger Road to the Belmont Substation in Warwick. The work requires traffic controls in the form of a moving set of traffic lights which will progress along South Road and Middle Road.

Workers are currently at Stage Two of the eight stage project, drilling on a stretch of road from Trimingham Hill roundabout to the traffic lights at Paget. Although the upgrade is not scheduled to finish until September, Belco spokeswoman Linda Smith said the summer holidays were chosen as the least disruptive time of year.

“Consideration has been given to doing this work in the middle of the night but we’ve found the residents complain about the noise. They are drilling and it is a noisy process,” said Ms Smith.

“There is never a good time of year to do this but we chose this time because it was over the summer holidays.”

Ms Smith said: “The worst part was over the weekend when there were two road accidents, and then one on Monday. Since then we have had a Police presence directing traffic and that has helped. This morning we met with the Police traffic division and Works and Engineering to try and improve the flow of traffic.”

Insp. Mark Bothello of the Police Road Policing Unit said: “We will be in the area between 7 and 9.30 a.m., or until the gridlock clears in the morning, and again in the afternoon, from 3.45p.m. until it clears.

“The traffic lights at the roadworks will be taken out of service during rush hour, and this should alleviate a lot of the burden. But please keep the Trimingham roundabout open to allow vehicle access. We have large vehicles blocking the roundabout and this is causing gridlock.”

Ms Smith said that during rush hour, the roadworks traffic lights will be replaced by Police officers. They will direct traffic at the lights, at Stowe Hill, at Trimingham Hill roundabout and at Paget traffic lights if needed.

“We will be monitoring the situation to see where we can increase the Police presence and we’re looking at alternative routes,” said Ms Smith.

“Yesterday (Tuesday) we noticed people on East Broadway were tending to move into the right hand lane and this meant the left lane was open as motorists were choosing Harbour Road over Middle Road. The result was that it was easier to move on Middle Road than it was on Harbour Road.

“Police will be monitoring this and directing the traffic as appropriate. But please realise that traffic will be flowing on both Middle and Harbour Road, so make your decision based on how you see the traffic moving, as sometimes the passage will be better on Harbour Road.

“As we progress, we will try to find the best detours and alternatives and so we would ask motorists to take the advice of the signs they see and obey Police instructions.

“We are asking people to be aware — to look at the direction the Police are moving you in and make decisions based on that.

“During the non-rush hour we ask motorists to adhere to the lights and when they are on red, please stop before the Trimingham roundabout, as this has been another source of gridlock and has stopped traffic flowing from South Road.”

“The worst part is going to be where we are now and until we get past Stowe Hill.”