A GAS leak gave frustrated motorists a double whammy today as they struggled into Ipswich at rush hour.

A GAS leak gave frustrated motorists a double whammy today as they struggled into Ipswich at rush hour.

Already reeling from the problems caused by the new pedestrian crossing at UCS, they were faced with a single lane of traffic around the Waterfront.

Traffic was forced to queue the length of Bishop's Hill - and at the height of the rush hour went past the Nacton Road junction on Felixstowe Road.

Engineers from the National Grid were called to Key Street in Ipswich yesterday afternoon following reports of the smell of gas by the Old Custom House.

The team waited until after yesterday's rush-hour was over before starting work on the problem, and Suffolk police closed one lane of the road last night.

Today drivers travelling onto the notorious town centre route system from Bishop's Hill and Grimwade Street faced long delays.

Queues stretched back from the east of Ipswich as motorists who were already fuming about the addition of new traffic lights in Fore Street faced extra misery.

A spokeswoman for the National Grid warned the traffic problems were due to continue into today's afternoon rush-hour too, with the work not expected to be finished today.

She said: “We got a report of a smell of gas in the area yesterday afternoon and we had teams out overnight.

“We held off doing excavation until the evening rush-hour was past then we started excavations overnight.

“We will certainly be there for the rest of the day.

“We are still trying to get to the bottom of what happened. We know it is not third party damage.

“It is some problem with the pipe itself and we are still investigating.

“We have a team on site and they are closely monitoring the situation. If we thought there was any serious danger we would evacuate the area.”