All other roadworks in Nottingham city centre have been temporarily halted while Canal Street is shut to help traffic flow.
Emergency work to repair leaking gas pipes on is causing long rush hour delays of up to 30 minutes across the city.
On Tuesday Nottingham City Council said it was temporarily halting all other roadworks in the city while National Grid complete the work, in a bid to ease traffic flow.
Councillor Nick McDonald, Portfolio Holder for Transport, said: “It’s frustrating the National Grid has had to carry out more roadworks on Canal Street not long after major works were carried out in the same location.
”We understand that these are emergency works that have to be done and safety must be the priority where gas lines are concerned but questions have to be asked about why this couldn’t be resolved first time round.
“The Council was only informed about the new road works Sunday night and, as they are emergency works, there is nothing we can do prevent them happening but clearly they are causing major disruption for people.
“We have been speaking to National Grid to seek confirmation on how long they are expecting the gas works to take.”
Cllr McDonald says the road closure has a severe ‘knock-on effect’ to other roads in the city.
He said: “With over 2,000 cars an hour using Canal Street, lane closures there cause a major bottleneck which has a knock on effect on surrounding roads in the city centre.
“The priority in this situation is to keep Nottingham moving so, rather than let traffic back up, the best solution is to close Canal Street westbound temporarily with diversion signs put in place instructing drivers to use Queens Road as an alternative route.
“This will ease traffic flow and help people avoid the area but still get to where they need to go.”
National Grid say Canal Street will stay closed westbound until at least tomorrow morning (Wednesday March 15) if all repairs are completed as expected.
A spokeswoman from National Grid said: “The leaking gas pipe has been repaired but we still have gas readings and we think we know where it is coming from.
“We have to make sure everything is fixed before we can reopen.”
