Road bosses have defended the closure of a lane on the A127 yesterday. 

The closure on the Londonbound carriageway near to Rayleigh Weir sparked long delays and chaos on the road, as well in nearby Rayleigh and parts of the A13. 

Some motorists faced hour long delays and queues formed several miles back to Westcliff on the A127. 

A lane closure was put in place after machinery used for roadworks broke down. 

This delayed the resurfacing work being done on the A127 and Essex Highways says this meant the road was dangerous for motorists to use. 

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A spokesman said: "Unfortunately the crew suffered a machine breakdown on Tuesday night which couldn’t be fixed.

"The road was left unfinished on this section, with the carriageway here lower than the surface on the rest of the road, so it would have been totally unsafe to open it.

"The lane closure remained until the crew are able to return to finish the work last night.”

Essex Highways had apologised yesterday for the disruption caused. 

Both lanes on the Londonbound carriageway of the A127 were open this morning and traffic was back to normal levels.