Ref. 75617-70CONGESTION on Great Western Way could continue until Wednesday as repairs take place to a burst water pipe.

The surface of the road was raised when the pipe burst in the early hours of Friday morning.

Traffic came to a standstill when the one-foot wide pipe exploded at around 4am, forcing closure of the northbound carriage and lane two of the southbound carriageway.

Water poured from the pipe and buckled the road making it impassable.

Thames Water said repairs to the water pipe were complete and the engineers were awaiting the arrival of material to repair the road.

Thames Water spokesman Andrew Boyd said: "Repairs to the pipe were relatively straightforward and were carried out on Saturday and tests are being carried out to make sure the pipe is safe to put back into service.

"Our engineers are excavating the road and are awaiting the arrival of the foam concrete, which is a material we don't tend to keep in stock. That should arrive early this morning. Once that is laid down, it will take 24 hours to set. Then we need to lay down two layers of tarmac.

"We hope that the road can re-open on Tuesday evening at the earliest or most likely on Wednesday."

The incident is the second time the road has been closed in seven months due to a burst main. In June last year Great Western Way had to be closed for more than three hours after parts of the road were submerged in two feet of water causing widespread disruption to rush hour traffic.