Burst water pipe results in floods of traffic and disruption across town
DRIVERS were warned to expect long delays in Heanor due to reports of a burst water pipe in the town.
Motorists were stuck in High Street and heavy jams were tailing back all the way to the town’s Tesco supermarket yesterday.
Witnesses say Severn Trent Water was at the scene and was dealing with what has been described as a “leak”.
Passers-by said Severn Trent engineers were digging up the road and had a four-way traffic light system in place at the roundabout outside Tesco while they try to fix it.
Severn Trent issued an update on the situation. A spokesperson said: “Our teams are working on repairing a burst water pipe in High Street, Heanor.
“We’re happy to say no-one’s water supply has been affected by the leak, but to keep our team and other road users safe as we fix the pipe, we’ve put temporary traffic lights in place.
“We’re sorry for any inconvenience, our priority is to fix the pipe and return everything back to normal as quickly and as safely as possible.”
Witnesses said there were queues of up to 30 cars in the town at one point and were in all directions.
Traffic was also building around the Jolly Collier pub, in Derby Road.
One witness said: “Looks like there’s a water leak in High Street. Severn Trent are digging up the road and have out a four-way traffic light system in place at the roundabout outside Tesco while they try and fix it.
“All the traffic from Derby comes through there, all the traffic from Ilkeston comes through there and Tesco is there as well, which is the biggest shop here.
“There’s a queue of more than 30 cars at a time waiting to get out of Tesco and there’s long queues in all directions.
“I can’t believe it is so busy. We are in Tier 4 now, people shouldn’t be going anywhere now. It’s lucky it hasn’t happened on a normal day as there could be even more traffic.”
People were also tweeting about the incident in Heanor.
One wrote: “Roads extremely busy through Heanor because of a burst water (pipe) near Tesco island. Lots of queuing traffic in all directions.”