One of the busiest roads in Ipswich town centre is to remain closed after a ‘sink hole’ opened up earlier this week.

The hole opened in Tacket Street on Wednesday lunchtime, and during the evening a team of experts from Anglian Water identified the issue as a collapsed sewer.

Today more engineers examined the damage and decided that Tacket Street would have to be closed by this morning.

In the meantime Anglian Water workers were finishing off work which had closed nearby Foundation Street in a bid to ensure that access is maintained to the NCP multi-storey car park.

The work was completed this afternoon and the carriageway was re-instated. Engineers were waiting for the surface to harden and the road was due to reopen on tomorrow night.

Bus companies that use Tacket Street as part of their main route to and from the town centre were told about the closure and are having to change routes and bus stops.

It was originally thought that the problem could have been a sink hole, but further investigation revealed the problem with the sewer about three metres under the ground.

A spokesman for Anglian Water said engineers expected the road to be closed for about a week – and staff would be working every day.

“We shall continue to work over the weekend to ensure that the repairs are completed as quickly as possible. We hope to get the work done within a week but at this stage we cannot make any promises.

“We would like to apologise to road users for the inconvenience but when this happens there is little that we can do except close the road and get on with the work.”

Ipswich Buses managing director Jeremy Cooper said the company was still waiting for confirmation of the road closure, but if it was confirmed buses would not be able to use Tacket Street alternative stops would be used at Bond Street and Mayor’s Corner.