A section of Woodbridge Road East damaged by a burst water main on Monday is likely to stay closed until Monday, January 26, a week after the damage was spotted.

The section of road between the Lattice Barn pub and the roundabout for the A1214 was closed at around 12.45pm on Monday, after a burst water main caused the road to flood and the surface of the tarmac to suffer damage.

Engineers from Anglian Water had managed to stop the leak by around 2.30pm on Monday, and had restored water to 20 homes which had been left without water.

Around three metres of pipe had to be replaced following the damage.

On Monday, Anglian Water had suggested the road would be open on Wednesday, before being pushed back to “a conservative estimate” of re-opening Friday.

Now the company has said it is likely to be Monday.

A spokesperson said: “Looking at the damage we are going to need to resurface around five metres squared of groundwork, so the latest information will now be a Monday re-opening.

“Usually with this we try to sort it as quickly as we possibly can, but these things take time and the last thing we want is to do a botched job.

“Again, we apologise for the inconvenience, and we are aware of other road works going on in the town which are causing disruptions, so we are trying to get things done as quickly as we can.”

The closure of Cauldwell Hall Road and temporary traffic lights at the Spring road junction as part of Travel Ipswich improvements are already causing severe delays on the stretch of road, which is one of the main routes into the town centre.