Gas leak roadworks causing “chaos” on major Wigan road

The roadworks are currently up on Warrington Road near to the roundabout at the M6 slip road at Marus Bridge.

Motorists have said that there are no signs stating the nature of the roadworks or how long they are due to last.

While commuters have hit out at delays at tea time as the lanes drop down to one.

Gas network Cadent said it has now repaired the leak and that the roadworks would be removed on Thursday.

A spokesman for Cadent, which manages and maintains all of Wigan’s underground gas mains, said: “We have been investigating the source of a leak on the underground gas network and traced it to a medium pressure main that runs deep under Warrington Road.

“It was not at levels to require any kind of evacuation, but it did need fixing urgently.

The spokesman acknowledged that the work has caused “disruption” and will have been “frustrating” for motorists.

But they said the priority was to “keep everyone safe.”

They said: “Our teams have now completed a repair. The main is actually very deep underground, so it was not the easiest of pipes to locate and then work on.

"Our engineers are also skilled in working on such a gas main ‘live’ – i.e. the gas stays on, so no-one lost their gas supply. We kept gas flowing to local homes and businesses throughout.

“The hole we’ve had to dig in the road is now being reinstated and, once that’s had time to settle, and is safe to drive on again, we will lift the traffic management.

They added: “We expect to be offsite by tomorrow (today). We thank everyone for their patience while we carried out this work.”