AFTER months of traffic chaos, motorists across Old Town can now breathe a sigh of relief as the area’s busiest roads have returned to normal.

Resurfacing work in Victoria Road, which has seen diversions in place since the beginning of the month, finished tonight – four days ahead of schedule.

The work followed weeks of digging by Thames Water to fix a collapsed sewer in Devizes Road last month, as well as more work in Victoria Road in September.

Coun Keith Williams, the cabinet member for strategic transport, said: “Victoria Road was re-opened at about 4pm. It was open over the weekend but there were a few finishing touches that needed to be done on Monday. It is business as usual now.

“We estimated 10 days as the worst case scenario. This is one of those occasions where it has been completed in a relatively speedy manner. It is good news for everyone.”

Traffic chaos started in Old Town in September when work started in Victoria Road to repair a portion of a collapsed sewer.

Diversions were put in place but motorists were caught on camera passing by a cordon on either side of the road, leading police to issue a warning to drivers to abide by the closures.

Work finished in Victoria Road in the middle of September and resurfacing work was scheduled to start at the beginning of October.

However, it was postponed after Thames Water started emergency repairs in Devizes Road, which took a month to complete.

Swindon Council continued with its scheduled resurfacing work at the beginning of this month.

Terry Way, the service manager at Cross Street Garage, which is just off Victoria Road, said he was pleased Swindon Council had given them sufficient notice before work started.

“We had prior notice of it happening so when we were taking bookings we were able to make people aware,” he said.

“We thought it was going to be the rest of this week as well so it is good news that it is back open.

“It was annoying when Devizes Road was closed but these things have to be done. “