Sat, 28th Jan 2012

Richmond News

Broken down crane causes traffic chaos on Westbound M4

By Ian Mason

4:59pm Friday 23rd October 2009

A broken down crane caused chaos on a busy motorway earlier today.

A section of the M4 Westbound, between junction one and the Brentford turn off at junction two, was closed for almost five hours due to the breakdown, a hydraulic fluid spill and subsequent recovery work.

A specialist cleaning crew had to be brought in to tackle the spill, which meant the strip of motorway was not reopened until 11.30am - having been closed at 6.40am.

The rush hour incident led to long traffic delays, and congestion on the A307 Kew Road to A205 Mortlake Road and on the A4 Hammersmith Flyover to the A306 Great West Road.

A Met spokesman said the morning incident was caused by problems with the crane’s steering mechanism.

• Did you see what happened? Or take any pictures? Let us know by email (gholt@london.newsquest.co.uk), phone the newsdesk on 020 8744 4271 or leave a comment below.

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