A town has been left gridlocked after diversions from three separate sets of roadworks sent drivers into a dead end.
Three engineering projects, including work on what residents are calling the “cycle path to nowhere”, along key traffic routes in Burgess Hill are causing transport chaos.
Roadworks in Station Road, work on a cycle path in Queen Elizabeth Avenue and the replacement of streetlights in Lower Church Road are giving motorists a headache.
Council officials admitted it was an “oversight” to divert drivers down Norman Road – where they met a dead end.
The cycle path works were already annoying residents before they were twinned with roadworks elsewhere.
The 470-metre off-road, shared use path along Queen Elizabeth Avenue and London Road links the B2113 CivicWay roundabout to the cycle path in Victoria Gardens.
The £125,000 project has been dubbed the cycle path to nowhere, because it does not link up with Burgess Hill Railway Station just a few hundred metres away.
Residents have complained the project is unnecessary, claiming the road is too wide to warrant a cycle path, and argue the money would be better spent resurfacing roads elsewhere in the town.
Peter Chapman, who runs the Burgess Hill Uncovered blog, said: “The council have said in their leaflet that they will monitor the usage of the cycle lane once it’s open to see whether it could be linked to the station, but no one will use it if it goes nowhere.
“As for the roadworks, it just seems that somebody sitting in a council office looked it up on a computer and chose the nearest road not knowing it wasn’t a through road.
“It’s just a nightmare especially on the school run because a lot of parents use those roads.”
A West Sussex County Council spokesman said the local authority had not undertaken a study into cycling facilities linking Queen Elizabeth Avenue to the station. He added: “Although Queen Elizabeth Road is wide enough to support cyclists, they are still choosing to ride on the existing footway, preferring this to riding within the traffic.
“Although cyclists should not be riding on the footway, they are clearly choosing to do so and this indicates a positive need for a cycle path. It will be a continuing asset benefit to the community.”
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