NEW traffic signals designed to "smoothe traffic flows" at junction 14 of the M5 had the opposite effect when they were switched on this week.

Rush hour motorists fumed on Wednesday as they faced long delays caused by the new traffic control system at the junction with the B4509 between Tortworth and the A38 at Falfield.

The new signals - part of the £460,000 package of "improvements" at the junction - were switched on on Tuesday afternoon and had their first real test the following morning.

Queues built up in both directions - from Tortworth and from the A38 from Dursley - and engineers were finally forced to switch off the signals and allow traffic to revert to self regulation.

The Gazette received a stream of calls from irate motorists who had been seriously delayed by the congestion.

"It was total chaos," said Godfrey Walton from Dursley. "On a good day I can be in my office in Bristol in 25 minutes but on Wednesday it took me practically that long to get onto the motorway at Falfield.

"I was in a queue on the A38 which tailed back to well before the Bristol Inn. Drivers wanting to carry on down to Thornbury were also stuck and some were pulling out and overtaking the queue.

"When I got up the lights they were being manually controlled but that wasn't improving things. People were getting really frustrated and a few drivers were so fed up they were jumping red lights."

One woman caller said: "If it's like this during school holidays what's it going to be like next week?"

Highways Agency spokesman Robin Miller admitted there had been glitches.

"There were no reported problems on Tuesday evening but things did go very wrong on Wednesday morning," he said. "The signals were stuck on a sequence meant for the evenings when most traffic is leaving the motorway.

"They had to be switched off and re-set. They are designed to take account of traffic conditions and are being carefully monitored during the first few days until they have adjusted to traffic patterns."

He said the signals had been installed to improve safety by controlling the flow of traffic negotiating the junction.

In the past, drivers have experienced difficulty making right turns from the slip roads and traffic has been known to queue on the motorway at peak times.

The safety scheme, carried out by contractors Lafarge Construction, also includes wider lanes for traffic joining the motorway from the B4509, anti-skid surfacing, new road markings, signs, safety fencing and drainage.

Highways Agency project manager Dave Frampton said: "During busy peak periods long queues frequently form on the slip roads at Junction 14, sometimes queuing onto the main carriageway of the M5.

"The new lights will improve traffic flows, reducing congestion and improving safety."

Further work to provide road studs and nodes on the northbound slip road is set to go ahead shortly, requiring the exit to be closed for three nights during weekends only.