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A143 Compiegne Way in Bury St Edmunds could reopen early next week




A flooded Bury St Edmunds road which has been shut since the start of the year could reopen early next week.

The A143 Compiegne Way has been closed since January 1 due to heavy flooding 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.

Compiegne Way in Bury St Edmunds on January 17. Picture: Suffolk Highways
Compiegne Way in Bury St Edmunds on January 17. Picture: Suffolk Highways

Yesterday, Suffolk Highways said one side of the road was clear after 72,000 gallons of water were removed, while the other was covered in ice.

Today a spokesman said: “Our teams have been able to remove most of the water from Compiegne Way today - another seven tanker loads.

“As promised, we also had a streetlighting team attend site, who carried out maintenance on their lights within the closure and will be returning on Monday to replace a streetlighting column.

Compiegne Way in Bury St Edmunds. Picture: Mark Westley
Compiegne Way in Bury St Edmunds. Picture: Mark Westley

“Tonight, the road will be gritted again to assist with melting any ice that is left, allowing the team to continue their work safely and at speed tomorrow.

“Tomorrow the focus will be on clearing the water from the pump chamber. We also have a team attending site to start clearing the debris and silt from the road, this will then allow us to assess the surface to see what repairs are required.

“New parts have been ordered to repair the control centre and a new pump, it is hoped that once the pump is repaired and the repairs to the road surface are complete over the weekend the road could be reopened early next week. However, this is dependent on weather and success of the system repairs.

“We will update you with further progress tomorrow. Thank you again for your patience and we apologise for the ongoing inconvenience this closure is causing, these works remain our top priority.”

Picture: Mark Westley
Picture: Mark Westley

The road has repeatedly flooded over the autumn and winter.

Suffolk Highways took mitigation measures in April last year, which included removing more than 100 tonnes of silt from the drainage system and installing new pumps, but flooding has persisted.

Yesterday, Suffolk county councillor Peter Thompson, who represents the Eastgate and Moreton Hall division, said there seemed to be scant regard over the impact of the Compiegne Way closures on the town's economy and residents’ wellbeing.

Cllr Thompson said the road bed needed raising, with some sort of physical run-off created, and there should have been proper investment to fix the issue a long time ago.

"It's a civil engineering problem - a building problem, not a pumps and pipes problem," he said.

"It needs to have a proper solution with proper spending because we're spending good money after bad (on it)."

John Clements, Suffolk assistant director of highways services, said discussions would be had over any long-term plans for the flood-hit road.

Meanwhile, businesses have spoken of the effect the closure has had.

British Sugar is among the businesses affected by the closure and a spokesperson said the firm wanted to support Highways where it could in solving the issue which impacted vehicles entering its Hollow Road site.

It said: “We are extremely keen to see a longer term solution to help address this ongoing issue, and to see Bury town moving freely again.”