A WATER main has burst again in Upper Hale Road at the junction with Alma Lane, causing long tailbacks and flooding several gardens.

Workers from South East Water arrived on site at around 11pm on Wednesday, July 5, and emergency repairs are ongoing.

Nearby residents were also forced into action, protecting their homes with sandbags and sweeping water until 2am on Thursday, July 6.

South East Water’s distribution manager Paul Mann told the Herald: “We are currently working to fix a burst on a 12-inch diameter water main along Upper Hale Road near to its junction with Alma Lane.

“Unfortunately the burst caused some water to build up in gardens in nearby properties.

“The damaged section of pipe has been hard to find so this work has taken longer than anticipated but the repair is now underway.

“Once this work has been completed, we will return the road to its original condition.

“For the safety of the public and our workforce, temporary traffic lights will be in place along this section of Upper Hale Road while this work takes place.

“We know this is a busy road so we are working as hard as we can to complete this work as soon as possible.”

The same water main has burst a number of times in recent years, adding to a succession of gas works and highway improvements in Upper Hale Road and the surrounding area.

In March 2015 a collapsed sewer also flooded homes with raw sewage in nearby Ball and Wicket Lane.

Referring to the latest burst water main, Mr Mann added: “The traffic lights will only stay in place as long as necessary and we know sometimes it looks like there isn’t any work taking place.

“However, this is not the case as the road surface needs to be kept free from traffic while it hardens off and sets. This can take time, depending on the weather.

“Unfortunately, emergencies like this do happen on our network which has 9,000 miles of underground pipeline transporting 540 million litres of water a day.

“There are also six million joints which have to withstand high pressure 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“Inevitably sometimes these pipes and connections fail, but we work around the clock to repair them as quickly as possible.”

*If anyone is affected by the latest incident in Upper Hale Road, please tell us your story by emailing [email protected].