Eastern Road in Portsmouth: Decision on when to reopen the road after Southern Water repairs

The southbound lanes between the A27 junction and Anchorage Road have been closed since Thursday to allow for major repair work to take place to fix the third sewage leak found by Southern Water in the past two months. The road was originally due to reopen on Sunday evening but another leak was discovered, meaning that the road has remained closed while further repairs are carried out.

This followed the road closure last month to repair another leak which has been found in the network of sewer pipes. This brought the city and surrounding area to a halt after highways officials decided to close the entire A27 westbound junction leading to Eastern Road which had also prevented traffic exiting to get into Drayton and Farlington. This time around the junction has remained opened for traffic accessing these northern areas, but there has still been considerable gridlock in the north of the city as well as tailbacks on the A27 and A3(M).

A spokesman for Southern water said: “The Eastern Road Southbound has reopened. In the early hours of this morning, our traffic management team reopened Eastern Road Southbound and the path on the west side, between Farlington Roundabout and Anchorage Road. We have completed emergency repairs to the new burst on the sewer main following the previous repairs at the weekend so that the road and path can be reopened. We’re sorry for the traffic disruption and thank you for bearing with us. We’re aware there have been repeated issues on this section of pipework in Eastern Road and we will look towards planning longer term solutions in the new year.”