Armley Gyratory work: Leeds drivers complain of 'ridiculous' traffic gridlock as some stuck for three hours

The Armley Gyratory is partially closed as work takes place to remove and replace Gelderd Road footbridge in less than three days.

The Wellington Road south east and Ingram Distributer southbound exits have been closed since Friday evening, with Leeds City Council mapping out a near 18-mile diversion.

Workers are racing to finish the job before Monday morning commuters hit the roads, with the closures expected to be lifted by 5.30am. 

There was gridlocked traffic across Leeds city centre and into the city’s inner suburbs on Saturday, particularly on Kirkstall Road, as these pictures show.

Hannah Tufnall, posting on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, said: “This has caused absolute chaos around the whole of Leeds today. I’ve never seen the traffic this bad. Standstill and gridlock almost everywhere.”

Yorkshire Evening Post readers have also had their say.

Karen Marshall said: “I was in this traffic trying to collect my daughter from a course, dropped her off at 9.30am no problem went back to collect her at 3.20pm an absolute nightmare, 2.5 hours to get from Morley to Kirkstall Vue cinema, then another nightmare to get back through Armley.

"Safe to say I could have drove to London in the time it took me to get there and back."

Chris Bee added: “It was a nightmare all around Leeds area today! Kirkstall and Headingley were also terrible.”

Andrea Douglas said: “An absolute disgrace how this has been sorted, cones started unnecessarily early before the bridge, everywhere gridlocked. Yes we needed to be out and tried to divert round it all! All roadworks on at the same time!”

Elizabeth Prue said: “Took us nearly three hours to get from Leeds to Drighlington and we left Leeds at 3.15pm. Our five year old had to pee on a bottle!"

Kirsty Leanne said her 20-minute journey took one hour and 45 minutes, while John Dakin said it took 30 minutes to get through Horsforth due to Ring Road queues blocking Horsforth Roundabout.

Benni Joseph Todd said: "It’s ridiculous. Genuinely a 10 minute drive took me three hours to get home.”

But other readers pointed out that the council has been warning drivers about the disruption for weeks - and suggested motorists might be to blame for the gridlock by not planning ahead or following the council's advice. 

Nigel Smith said: “It's been very slow moving on Westgate Point Roundabout all day. Motorists have ignored all warning to steer clear and have made the situation 10 times worse by jumping the lights and completely blocking junctions. The result being self inflicted gridlock.”

Neil Watson added: “It's not has though they haven't been advertising it all week though, is it?”

Neville Parkin said: “People don't plan ahead. Simple as that.”

While Brendon Sullivan commented: “Plenty of warning and we went on the ring road around Farnley to get back to Bramley. I can't understand how it takes them so long to get stuff done though.”

David Thorpe had some strong words for those complaining about the traffic. “Half of you don't need to be on the roads,” he said.

“The other half are in singly occupied vehicles, the scourge. You had fair warning so why bleat because you can't get to your consumer self indulgence.

"Give yer car a rest. Do something different. Give the buses a chance and those that need to be on the road for a living.”

The council has thanked the public for their patience, and accepted that undertaking the work in one weekend did have the “potential to cause disruption to traffic”.

As of Saturday evening, the work was running on time - and scheduled to finish at 5am on Monday, ahead of rush hour traffic.

A council spokesperson said: “The removal and replacement of the Gelderd Road footbridge is a major undertaking and, as with many highways projects of this size, we were conscious that there was potential for it to cause disruption to traffic.

“We have therefore in recent weeks endeavoured to make people aware of the issues they could face this weekend, with an extensive diversion route also being put in place.

“We appreciate that today’s disruption will have been frustrating for those affected and thank everyone for the patience they have shown.

“Our teams have been working hard at the Armley Gyratory since Friday night and are currently on target to complete the replacement of the bridge by the scheduled time of 5am on Monday.”