Latest news with #traffic
CNN
an hour ago
- Climate
- CNN
Mudslide strands thousands on mountainous West Virginia highway for more than 8 hours
FacebookTweetLink Follow Thousands of motorists were stranded for more than eight hours along a section of rural interstate highway in southern West Virginia early Friday after a mudslide caused by heavy rains blocked a storm drain the previous night, flooding the northbound lanes. Traffic backed up for 12 miles along the West Virginia Turnpike about 20 miles south of Charleston, the state capital. Traffic was not rerouted, and many motorists along the mountainous route had no choice but to remain in their vehicles overnight. Motorists posted on social media that they had no information on why the standstill occurred, that they had nothing to drink in their vehicles or that their children needed to use the bathroom. Nicky Walters said in a telephone interview that she felt fortunate while she was stuck because she is healthy, did not not need medicine and had nobody she was responsible for caring for. 'But I felt desperate because I knew that other people needed help,' said Walters, who became stranded while returning to Charleston from a pro wrestling event in Mount Hope. 'People needed, at minimum, water bottles passed out and some snacks, much less information. They needed any lifeline to the outside world, and there was none.' Chuck Smith, executive director of the West Virginia Parkways Authority, said one lane reopened Friday morning but traffic remained at a standstill for hours. 'Traffic should have been detoured to allow drivers an alternate route around the mudslide,' Smith said in a statement. 'The Parkways Authority takes full responsibility for the failure to reroute traffic, and would like to assure the public that this will never happen again.' No injuries were reported. By the time Brittany Lemon and her family finally got home to Parkersburg, 24 hours had passed since they began returning from their vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. In a video posted to Facebook, Lemon said she had no water and her children needed to use the bathroom. They were able to get an hour's sleep while stuck on the highway. 'Definitely next year when I go back, I'll be prepared for an emergency in the vehicle,' she said. Mitch Carmichael, a former cabinet secretary of the Department of Economic Development, said on Facebook that he was on the turnpike 'for hours with no relevant or timely info as to when issue will be cleared.' He called it 'incredibly unprofessional' for the public to be left in the dark and said it gives West Virginia 'a terrible image.' Gov. Patrick Morrisey said in a statement that the shutdown 'was completely unacceptable. I have directed the Parkways Authority to immediately conduct an investigation and revise its procedures as necessary as a result of this incident.' Shutdowns of the turnpike have happened before. In 2022 a tractor trailer crashed and spilled a chemical along the turnpike, closing all lanes for most of the day.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Council removes bizarre roundabout after backlash from drivers in 'disgraceful saga'
An unconventional and much talked about road feature has disappeared overnight just days after it made headlines around the country for its very peculiar, and seemingly ineffective, design. A diamond-shaped roundabout was recently rolled out in Sydney's southwest – much to the total bemusement of drivers in the Liverpool Council area. Fifteenth Avenue, set to become a key arterial route to the new Western Sydney Airport, has recently seen a flurry of roadworks, with three new roundabouts installed in quick succession. Roundabouts have been added at 22nd Avenue, Craik Avenue, and the now-infamous – and short lived – diamond-shaped roundabout at 28th Avenue. Footage captured by Yahoo on Friday at the unusual roundabout showed a number of drivers ignoring the painted lines and driving straight through the road feature. However on Friday night, council workers quietly removed it all together. "There is no roundabout, it's gone," a council spokesperson told Yahoo News on Saturday. "We listened to our residents. It was a design that didn't work. "There were lots of complaints about it, so the simplest thing to do was to get rid of it." Photos from the scene on Saturday show black paint over the previous diamond shape and a previous sign has been removed, and replaced with a regular Giveway sign. "There was actually a mound in the middle of the intersection, so it was pulled up and the intersection has been repainted with slightly different line markings to the previous one. "It's going back to the intersection that it was, and we've also put some improved line markings to make it a bit simpler and easier," the spokesperson said. Local MP Nathan Hagarty was also on the scene on Saturday to mark the occasion. "Cars are still stopping, they're not sure what to do," he said in a video posted to constituents on social media. "But as far as I'm concerned, this is not the end of this disgraceful saga. I have had a look at the original designs and what I can say is that the design that I saw do not match what was delivered, so I think some serious questions need to be asked to Liverpool Council and the contractors... how much money has been wasted?" he said. Related: Major road rule changes coming into effect on July 1 across Australia For it's part, the Liverpool Council says the state government needs to upgrade the road to make it fit for purpose to handle the amount of traffic it receives. "It's always been an awkward intersection … we've been waiting years for that road to be upgraded – it's a major thoroughfare. It's going to be the major link into the Western Sydney International Airport and it's not going to be ready in time," the council spokesperson told Yahoo. "It hasn't been done properly and there's more pain to come unfortunately until that road is upgraded." Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
News.com.au
5 hours ago
- Automotive
- News.com.au
Liverpool City Council roundabout removed days after it was installed
An oddly-shaped roundabout that sparked mass chaos for drivers in Sydney's southwest has been removed just days after it was installed. Liverpool City Council plonked a diamond-shaped roundabout at the intersection of 15th and 28th Ave that residents found difficult to navigate and almost impossible to turn without hitting vehicles or poles. 'Because it's shaped like that, by the time I do swing it back around, I would hit those cars waiting there or the pole, so it makes it dangerous,' a road user told Yahoo. On Saturday morning, fresh photos revealed the roundabout had been painted over. A council spokesman said the council listened to complaints from local residents and acted quickly, but warned things would get worse before they got better. 'Overnight on Friday, the roundabout was removed and the intersection was repainted with better traffic markings,' the spokesman said. 'We hope that solves the problem for the time being.' 'But everybody in the area is urgently waiting for work to start upgrading 15th Ave now after the state and federal government both jointly promised a $1bn upgrade. 'Unfortunately, things are probably going to get worse before they get better, with the combined issues of the fast growth of Austral and the opening of Western Sydney International Airport.' Liverpool City Council expects an increase in housing in the areas immediately around the road, which could see 63,000 more people living there by 2041. More than 22,000 vehicles use the two-lane road each day, including 1760 trucks, which will be a major road that connects Liverpool to the new airport. About 5 million passengers are expected to transit through the western Sydney airport when it opens next year, with the number of passengers doubling by next decade. The Federal and NSW Governments announced in January a jointly funded $1bn upgrade to 15th Ave, but work isn't expected to begin until 2027. A NSW Transport spokesman said following representations from the community and the Member for Leppington, the department had spoken to Liverpool City Council, the responsible authority, who had revised the design and intended to complete works in the coming days.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
South Washington Street down to two lanes at 28th Avenue South beginning June 30
Jun. 27—GRAND FORKS — South Washington Street will see lane closures at 28th Avenue South beginning June 30. The project will focus on turn lane work. The lane closures are expected to last through July 6. During construction, Washington Street will be down to one lane in each direction and traffic on 28th Avenue will only be able to make right turns at the intersection. Northbound Washington Street traffic will return to normal beginning July 6 but but southbound traffic impacts will continue past July 6. The North Dakota Department of Transportation is leading the project and will extend the left turn lanes to allow for additional queueing space. NDDOT will also do concrete panel replacement. The project will cost $209,965, with the city of Grand Forks spending roughly $15,400. The rest of the funds come from state and federal funding sources.
CTV News
11 hours ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Political pushback on proposed Kettle Island Bridge
It's been a proposal for years as a solution to decrease traffic in the downtown core and remove trucks from the Lowertown neighbourhood. The National Capital Commission (NCC) is one week into public consultations on the proposed Kettle Island Bridge. However, there's been some pushback from politicians. The Kettle Island Bridge would be built over the Ottawa River to connect Ottawa and Gatineau, crossing Kettle Island and connection the Aviation Parkway to Montée Paiement. Robin Roberts commutes between Quebec and Ontario every day for work. Traffic along the stretch of King Edward Avenue makes it difficult. 'I take it every day. It's very busy. It's very difficult. On top of which, there's often a lot of pedestrians that are in the way and the trucks just make it more difficult to navigate back and forth,' said Roberts, who commutes between Quebec and Ontario. Roberts says a new interprovincial bridge would help. 'If they had a different alternative route, it would save us a lot of time, considering I'm the one going to the Quebec side every day,' said Roberts. The Liberal government has committed to building the Kettle Island Bridge, but Liberal MP Mona Fortier is against the idea. Fortier wrote in a letter to her constituents: 'The eastern bridge project via Kettle Island, specifically the corridor between the Aviation Parkway and Montée Paiement does not meet Ottawa's needs. It does not guarantee the removal of heavy trucks from the King Edward corridor, which is a crucial issue for safety, air quality and traffic flow in the downtown core.' The long-time controversial project would cost billions, but is something many in the Lowertown neighbourhood support. 'For 60 years, this community has been dealing with an unacceptable situation where we have trucks and many 18-wheelers, thousands of them per day, circulating right through the middle of our neighborhood and just mere meters of where people live,' said Sylvie Bigras, president of the Lowertown Community Association. Meanwhile, Ottawa councillor Tim Tierney says the solution for traffic is a southern ring road, not another bridge. 'We're pretty much the only capital that doesn't have an alternative route to go east-west,' said Tierney. 'We want to give alternative options to people to be able to say, maybe I don't want to go through downtown, maybe I want to skip out to Barrhaven.' The new bridge at Kettle Island could be completed between 2032 and 2034. The online survey from the NCC on the early planning and design is available until July 10.
