A road closure at the northern end of Perry St, Batemans Bay, caused traffic chaos in the CBD on Wednesday, April 1.
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Motorists on North Street could not turn into Perry Street and motorists on Perry Street could not drive into North Street.
Many drivers, including trucks, turned into Perry Street to get to North Street, unaware of the closures, and found themselves blocked.
The section of the road is closed for resurfacing work to prepare for the North and Perry Street intersection traffic lights.
Batemans Bay's Jacki Harding was selling raffle tickets outside Fenning Arcade on Wednesday morning watching the action unfold.
She saw a large Coles delivery truck, unaware of the road closure, turn into Perry Street from Beach Road.
The truck then had to reverse all the way up the adjacent car park to get out.
The closure also affected buses which had stopped at the bus stop on Perry Street and were forced to do a U-turn at the tiny round-a-bout at the entrance to the Village Centre car park.
Mrs Harding said it was quite interesting to watch, as increasing tourist traffic for the Easter period created more havoc.
"Traffic is continually coming down and turning around at the round-a-bout," she said.
"There should be a sign at the Beach Road round-a-bout saying 'no through road'."
Eurobodalla Shire councillor Milton Leslight was furious a section of the road had been closed during the "second biggest retail period".
"There has been absolutely no consideration," he said.
"The northern entrance to the CBD is closed right before one of the biggest trading times in the area.
"We have traders who are struggling and they go and close the CBD down."
He questioned if the closure was an April fool's joke.
Mayor Lindsay Brown said the work was due to be finished and the road reopened by the end of Wednesday.
"The contractors came a day late and we assessed the situation and felt we could complete the work in one day," he said.
"We had endeavored to do the work in the evening but the contractors weren't able to do that."
Cr Brown said after Wednesday, April 1, work would stop until after Anzac Day.
"We are conscious of the inconvenience it would cause to stop traffic during a holiday period," he said.
"We are trying to minimise the inconvenience as much as possible."
When work recommences after the holidays, more road closures are expected.
Cr Brown said he was under the impression that people had been notified.
"We can learn from today," he said.
"People were informed of planned closures during the initial consultation period.
"Maybe we should have gone back out and told people directly affected that the road would be closed."