Drivers in Swindon have become accustomed to seeing the sight of rows of traffic cones in the town, but that hasn't made the arrival of dozens of new cones at Greenbridge any easier to deal with. 

Thames Water dug a hole in the ground at the roundabout near the major Swindon retail park on November 9, and as a result, had to cone off several lanes around the circular junction, as well as lanes in exits approaching or leaving it.  

Even though the roadworks are only temporary and have now been cleared many took to social media to talk about the chaos and delays that were caused in the handful of days they were in effect. 

Swindon Advertiser: Traffic heading towards the Dockle Farmhouse junctionTraffic heading towards the Dockle Farmhouse junction (Image: Newsquest)

The coned-off section meant that you could not go from Oxford Road across with vehicles being forced off at Dorcan Way and then having to use the mini-roundabout by WH Smiths to turn around. 

On Saturday traffic on Dorcan Way tailed all the way back to the Messenger roundabout and in the other direction, the queue of cars trying to get there reached all the way to the BMW plant. 

This bumper-to-bumper queuing caused upwards of thirty minutes of delays, with that getting even longer during peak times. 

One person on Facebook said: "What on earth is going on at Greenbridge this morning? The Roundabout is close, cones all the way to WH Smith. I saw a huge lorry try to get around the mini roundabout at Smiths as he had nowhere to go! Crazy."

Another said: "Sooner it is over the better. You would like to think these sorts of works get policed to some degree by the council or whoever but no, Thames Water causing absolute carnage, and most of the time there's no one even working on site."

Swindon Advertiser: Confusing traffic cones all over Greenbridge RoundaboutConfusing traffic cones all over Greenbridge Roundabout (Image: Newsquest)

One major concern was that the traffic lights were still in operation from Dorcan Way, which many felt could have been turned off to ease congestion as traffic was being forced to come from there. 

Others have complained about the apparent lack of warning that the work was going to happen, meaning by the tie they realised it was there, they were already stuck in traffic. 

There has been a small ongoing water leak on the roundabout for a few weeks, so it seems that these roadworks were to allow the utility company to repair that.