Drivers leaving London hit by bank holiday travel chaos with long queues at Port of Dover

Drivers trying to escape London for the Bank Holiday weekend have struggled through five-hour traffic jams and long delays at the Port of Dover.

Motorists were stuck in up to five hours of traffic on the A3 in west London on Friday and Saturday after part of the motorway was closed due to emergency walks being carried out on a wall near the busy route.

Meanwhile, drivers also faced two-hour waits at the Port of Dover on Saturday, with long queues still in place on Sunday morning, the Port said.

Actor Hugh Grant was among those who faced long delays on the A3 northbound road at the Tolworth Junction underpass after Transport for London was forced to close several lanes of the busy route.

The issue, which began on Friday afternoon, coincided with the start of the bank holiday weekend and school holidays, with the RAC predicting more than 20 million leisure trips by car will be made between Friday and bank holiday Monday.

Traffic jams quickly built up on the A3 with one motorist complaining they spent eight hours stuck in unnecessary traffic across Friday and Saturday.

Another driver complained that there were still two-hour delays on the A3 at 11pm on Saturday.

Responding to a frustrated motorist on X, TfL wrote: “We are carrying out emergency repairs to a section of wall under the footbridge on the northbound carriageway of the A3 at Tolworth Junction.

“Lane closures are necessary to ensure the safety of the infrastructure and people using it.”

While stuck in traffic on the road which connects London and Portsmouth, Notting Hill star Grant claimed he had seen no work being carried out.

Hugh Grant posted on X on Friday: “Final rant about being stuck on the A3 coming into London today in a traffic jam that moved five miles in five hours.

“@TfL said they were doing ’emergency repair works’ near the Tolworth tunnel. But all day, drivers that finally made it there saw no work happening at all. Nor did I. Nothing. Just a lot of cones. So that @TfL message was apparently not true. I find I can’t let this this lie.”

National Highways confirmed that all emergency works had taken place early on Sunday morning and all lanes of the A3 have since reopened.