Video: Residents left without water in Shrewsbury after another burst
A water pipe which has repeatedly burst on a busy road will be replaced within weeks by contractors.
The pipe, on Roman Road, Shrewsbury, burst once again in the early hours of yesterday morning, leaving residents without water for hours.
Severn Trent Water contractors attended and the road, at the junction with Longden Road, was closed for a number of hours while emergency repairs were carried out.
Radbrook Primary School in Calverton Way, Shrewsbury, was also closed for a time due to the incident but reopened just before 9am after electricity to the building was restored.
A spokeswoman said: "The message initially went out that we were closed but they were able to restore the power quite quickly and we were able to open at normal time for the children."
Severn Trent Water sent engineers out to repair the pipe. The water was restored to the majority of properties affected within the SY3 area by 7.30am.
The water pipes in Roman Road have a history of leaks and bursts, including two incidents in December last year. A mains pipe burst at the junction with Hereford Road bringing misery to local shops and business as gallons of water flooded their premises causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.
Severn Trent Water has decided enough is enough and began a £1 million scheme to not only replace the pipes that keeping bursting, but also to reinforce the surrounding pipe network, making water supplies much more reliable. Investigational works started at the beginning of the month.
Grace Marren, spokeswoman for Severn Trent Water, said: "As many will know locally, this pipe has burst several times in the past, so we do have a longer term plan in place to replace the existing pipe. We recently started investigational work in the area to fully understand the condition of the ground and where other utility pipes and cables are. Once this is complete we'll be planning in the work to replace the pipe.
"We can only apologise for the inconvenience this pipe bursting has caused locals both today and in the past, but we want to reassure everyone that we will be spending around £1 million on the new water pipe, which will help to prevent bursts, like the one we saw yesterday, from happening."
