We’ve received some tweets, Facebook comments and calls about traffic problems in Chepstow which may be partly due to the road closure on the old Wye Bridge at the bottom of the town associated with the recently started refurbishment works of the bridge.
Our operations teams reviewed traffic management earlier and have proposed some changes which may help to alleviate the problem, however, we are anticipating that things will settle down over the next few days and furthermore the delays this morning may have been more attributed to the high winds and restrictions on the Severn Bridge.
It also seems that the traffic lights on the A48 at Tesco are not catering for the additional traffic on the A48. This operates on what is termed a SCOOT system which automatically sets the timings to traffic conditions and the Welsh Government are not easily able to adjust to allow more time to the main flow on the A48.
The traffic situation was checked last night (Wednesday, 6th May) and all seemed normal but we continue to check.
Monmouthshire Blog 
The issue with the queuing up to the M48 Severn Bridge on Tuesday and Wednesday was caused by policy with regards slowing traffic down when there are high winds ie. coning off a lane. This caused complete chaos in Chepstow regardless of Wye Bridge works, and even those who wanted to travel West on the M48 couldn’t because they were caught up in the single lane of traffic wanting to go East. Surely leaving both lanes open would have made the situation a whole lot better as at least then people travelling West could get out of the way. As it was, EVERYBODY in Chepstow was caught up in the mess.
PLEASE CAN YOU LOOK INTO THIS. Taking an hour to do a short journey within Chepstow due to badly thought-through traffic planning is unacceptable.
Thank you for taking the time to give us feedback. Our operations teams are looking into ways we can reduce the risk of this happening again in future.
Thank you for your acknowledgement and response to the traffic issues that have been affecting Chepstow and the surrounding areas over the last two days.
However I do not believe that it has identified the cause of the problem. The traffic signals in Chepstow by Tesco were only impeding the already gridlocked traffic. The cause of the problem was the new protocol that attempts to slow traffic using the link road joining the roundabout where people join the M48.
Having the two lanes go into one slowed all traffic to a standstill, not allowing these going westbound to Newport through. This in turn backed up all routes to the roundabout!
On the Chepstow Children’s Hub Facebook page we have had several complaints about this method of traffic calming as it had a huge impact of people’s commute to work, pupils journeys to school and I dread to think what would have happened if an emergency vehicle would have needed to get through!
The highways agency really need to reconsider this new method to slow traffic onto the M48 bridge when bad weather causes it to require single lane traffic.
Please take a look at the comments left on a recent post about this issue and urge the necessary parties to rethink this idea as it simply cannot continue
I dread to think what will happen if this policy continues if all the expected developments around Chepstow, Sedbury and Tutshill go ahead. Monmouthshire and Forest of Dean Councils do need to liaise together alot more!
Echoing the above, the traffic issues were not caused by the closing of the Old Wye Bridge, they were solely caused by the quite ridiculous decision to close one lane of the A466. As there is only one exit lane towards the bridge anyway, it literally made no difference to the bridge, but ruined a lot of people’s mornings, the reputation of Chepstow and it’s air quality. This must never happen again, or frankly the town is going to spiral to oblivion.
Actually, whilst I’m thinking about it, what the hell has happened to the A466 roundabout recently? It seems that they have changed the road layout in a way that makes almost no sense – hundreds of cars now attempting to merge on the roundabout having not seen the almost non-existent signage on the bridge. I assume this decision was taken to reduce the traffic backed up on the bridge, but it’s incredibly dangerous, and only a matter of time until there are mutli-car pile-ups on this roundabout. Frankly anyone involved would be wise to sue the council for a truly shambolic road system that activley encourages/forces vehicles to ‘do the wrong thing’ and drive and merge dangerously. It can’t be that hard to get right, can it!?