A143 Compiegne Way in Bury St Edmunds: Vandalised equipment hampering efforts to remove flood water
Published: 18:01, 16 January 2024
Engineers trying to clear a flooded road in Bury St Edmunds, which has been shut more more than a fortnight, are exploring options to repair or replace vandalised equipment to help remove the water.
The A143 Compiegne Way has been shut for more than two weeks due to heavy flooding in the wake of Storm Henk and Suffolk Highways had initially hoped to reopen the key route this Monday.
However, the sheer amount of water, silt and debris that needed to be removed as well as significant damage to the road delayed the reopening.
Tonight a spokesman said teams had continued pumping water away from the road in an attempt to remove enough water to carry out the further works and investigation that are required to alleviate the problems.
He said: “It is clear that there is ground water which is continuing to find its way to the road in significant volumes.
“We’ve investigated other options to remove the water more quickly but the most helpful potential option is hampered by a vandalised control gear that is needed to remove water from a storage lagoon nearby.
“We are exploring options to repair or replace this as soon as possible but in the meantime we will be doubling our tankers on site tomorrow, which means four tankers pumping over 60,000 litres of water away, which we hope will then allow us to commence the clearing of debris from the road and remove silt from the pump system so we can repair it.
“We will continue to provide updates on the works we’re completing each day.
“We're sorry for the ongoing inconvenience, we are working to get the road reopened as soon as we can.”
SuffolkNews reported earlier today that highways bosses were unable to say when the key road would reopen.
Compiegne Way has repeatedly flooded over the autumn and winter.
Suffolk Highways took mitigation measures in April this year, which included removing more than 100 tonnes of silt from the drainage system and installing new pumps, but flooding has persisted.