A TOWN centre road is likely to be closed for up to a week after a water main burst, pumping gallons of water into the streets.The incident happened shortly before 1pm yesterday in Princes Street, Ipswich, ripping a 20-metre hole in the concrete and causing a flood of water to spill out in front of traffic.

By Danielle Nuttall

A TOWN centre road is likely to be closed for up to a week after a water main burst, pumping gallons of water into the streets.

The incident happened shortly before 1pm yesterday in Princes Street, Ipswich, ripping a 20-metre hole in the concrete and causing a flood of water to spill out in front of traffic.

Anglian Water closed a section of the road and deployed an emergency team of contractors to the scene.

They were able to quickly isolate the area of the burst and stop the flow of water however the company admitted last night it could take up to a week to carry out all the repairs necessary.

Few households or businesses are believed to have been left without water due to the incident.

A spokesman for Anglian Water said last night: "It's a fairly major burst. At the moment, as far as we are aware, we have isolated the burst and shut the main off completely.

"That will allow the pressure in the rest of the system to go back up which means most people should be on normal services or just slightly lower pressure.

"We have had few calls from customers saying they have no water.

"We're looking at a road closure for about a week as it's a fairly sizeable burst. There is a 20-metre hole where the burst happened.

"That has to be completely repaired before the road can be opened. We have to close it for safety reasons, it's not something we take lightly."

The section of the road affected is between the fire station and Royal Mail sorting office, and is only open to buses and taxis. Anglian Water was believed to be contacting Ipswich Borough Council last night so they could put diversions in place.

The spokesman said the burst could have been due to the recent heavy rainfall.

"It happens for a number of factors. We've seen a lot of rainfall lately and the ground conditions have been affected," he said.

"East Anglia has ground that can change very quickly. When it is very dry or very wet there is movement in the ground and we can get expansion or compression. Eventually it can cause a pipe to weaken."