Chaos after traffic light failure

congestion on M62 motorway at Heywood

Rush hour traffic was gridlocked on Monday after a traffic light power failure.

Cars built up at junction 20 of the M62 as the lights, which are at the roundabout, ceased to work for almost a full day, creating a backlog along the A627M.

The Highways Agency worked with United Utilities and had the lights running again in time for Tuesday morning commuters.

A United Utilities spokesman said the problem was reported at 11.45am and power was back on at 9.05pm.

He added: "There was a low voltage cable underground which had become damaged. We sent an engineer out who located the cable”.