The Easter bank holiday traffic chaos has begun as drivers hit the roads early this Friday morning causing huge delays on major roads.
Part of the delays is due to the A14 in Suffolk being closed westbound between junction 55 and junction 53 near Ipswich due to a police led incident.
As a result the eastbound carriageway is closed within junction 53 to allow Suffolk Police to carry out their work.
National Highways detailed that emergency services including Air Ambulance are in attendance with the agency deploying resources to assist with traffic management.
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Easter traffic chaos begins as drivers hit the road for the bank holiday
GB NEWS
Drivers travelling westbound have been advised to leave the A14 westbound at junction 55 and at the roundabout take the third exit onto the A1214.
From there, drivers should follow the A1214 to the signalised junction with the A1071 and turn left onto the A1071.
After that, continue on the A1071 to the roundabout with the B1113 and take the third exit onto the B1113.
Follow the B1113 back to the A14 junction 52 and rejoin the A14 westbound to continue the journey.Road users travelling eastbound are being diverted via the exit and entry slip roads at junction 53.
As 14 million drivers hit the road for the busy Easter period, National Highways warned in advance to expect delays.
It is estimated that roughly 58,755 vehicles use the A14 every day with cars accounting for 39,749 of the vehicles on the 127 mile stretch of road.
It has not been made clear what caused the roads to close.
Data by RAC found that Good Friday could see some of the worst delays for drivers with 2.6 million getaway trips believed to take place on this day alone.
This is 600,000 more than the number of trips expected to have taken place on Thursday as well as the upcoming Easter Monday.
A further 2.3million trips are expected on Easter Saturday and Sunday as motorists travel to visit friends and family for the first bank holiday weekend of the year.
Alice Simpson, breakdown spokesperson at RAC, said: “With Easter falling earlier than usual at the start of the school holidays, it could be ‘carmageddon’ for holidaymakers.”
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Traffic on busy A road
PAAndy Butterfield, customer services director at National Highways had previously warned that due to this being the first bank holiday of the year, the agency expects the roads to be busy with people looking to make the most of a long weekend.
He added: “We encourage people to plan ahead and prepare their cars in advance for long journeys as this can help reduce the risk of breakdowns.”