A FOUR car pile up caused more chaos the A5/A483 between Wrexham and Oswestry just days after a double death crash on the same stretch of road.

The crash at the Halton roundabout happened at 2pm on Thursday as traffic streamed into North Wales for the Easter weekend. Queues built up as the damaged vehicles were cleared so that firefighters could wash down spilled petrol. No one was hurt

The crash happened as highways officials told the Leader that major work to repair the road badly damaged in last week’s fatal accident will not be finished until after the bank holiday.

Since the accident on march 22 on the bridge over the River Ceiriog, teams of highways contractors have been working to replace safety barriers on the parapet destroyed when they were hit by one of the vehicles involved, a fully-laden cattle truck.

With traffic on the busy arterial route between North Wales and the Midlands slowed down to 40mph, work has been going ahead behind a steel “containment” shield.

This was due to be completed by last night but the rest of the work – repainting road markings and putting back central “cats eyes” studs – has been put on hold until after the bank holiday when the aim is to complete it in just one night.

Two men died from their injuries at the scene of the crash, between the Halton and Gledrid roundabouts, when a white Mercedes estate car was in collision with the cattle truck and an empty chemical tanker just before 4.30pm.

They were Stuart Davies, 45, an Airbus worker from Mold, who was driving the car, and 43-year-old William Thomas Hefion Jones, from Cardigan, who was at the wheel of the cattle truck.

The driver of the tanker escaped with only a minor head injury.

In the immediate aftermath of the crash there was major congestion as all traffic was diverted off the A5 and through Chirk.

The temporary traffic system was introduced after three days.

David Cooil, network manager for the North Wales Trunk Road Agency which is in charge of the operation, said: “This was a very major incident from our point of view but we think we responded to it very promptly.

“The temporary road layout enabled us to re-open the road to two-way traffic shortly after the accident.

“We put in place 600 metres of temporary steel barrier, from one end of the bridge to the other, behind which work has been going ahead to replace about 50 metres of the parapet.

“This work was due to be finished by late on Thursday and then all that remains to be done is to re-mark the road and put back the central studs.

“To keep disruption to a minimum we have decided to do this after the bank holiday.

“It will be done at the same time as the remainder of the routine work now nearing completion on the Halton roundabout.

“Like this, the work on the bridge will be done overnight, in just one night, possibly on April 12.

“The 40mph restriction should continue to work well over this weekend.”