RUSH-hour traffic on the A3 was diverted through Farnham for the first time since the opening of the Hindhead Tunnel on Thursday last week.

A power cut led to the closure of the £371m tunnel for three hours from 5.45pm, forcing traffic on the London to Portsmouth trunk road to be diverted via the A31 and A325 via Farnham and Longmoor.

A Highways Agency spokesman said the closure was indirectly caused by the power cut, which happened during high winds. But the problem came with the failure of the "uninterruptible" back-up power supply to the tunnel. It is designed to keep running for at least two hours while the systems are powered down to safely get people out of the tunnel.

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For full story, see this week's Farnham Herald.