Bristol commuter road reopens

Cumberland Road in Bristol has today reopened.

The road had been closed after workmen discovered it was on the verge of collapse.

The road had to be closed on Sunday after a water main burst.

Workmen carrying out repairs discovered that the support underneath the tarmac on the road had eroded away.

The road was expected to reopen on Tuesday morning, but did not reopen until this afternoon.

Bristol Water said it was because the hole in the road is so big.

The whole width of Cumberland Road has had to be excavated, along a stretch of the road about 15ft long.

According to Bristol Water, no customers’ water supplies were affected by the burst main.

A spokesman for Bristol Water said the leak had been noticed when water started appearing on the road surface.

He said: “The pipe was fixed immediately, but work has had to be done to dig around it and fill the hole with gravel and rocks to repair the pipe’s support.

“Once it is all filled in and re-surfaced we do not foresee that there will be any other problems.”

He said that it was an isolated incident and that Bristol Water were not concerned about pipes anywhere else along the road.

Bus operator Wessex Connect have reported delays of up to 25 minutes on some of its services as a result of the traffic caused by the closure.

The 510 from Bedminster Down to Hotwells, the Park and Ride services from Avonmouth and Long Ashton and the UWE Link service, which usually run down Cumberland Road, are all still running but have had to be diverted.

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