THE A605 in Whittlesey will be closed for most of the weekend to allow Anglian Water to fix a leaking main under the road.

It comes days after a water main burst on the edge of Whittlesey and cut the supply to 7,000 homes in Whittlesey, Coates and Benwick.

The closure will be in place from about 9am Saturday until the repairs have been completed.

A spokesman for Cambridgeshire County Council said Anglian Water anticipates the repair “will take to at least late afternoon on Sunday”.

He said: “The main is apparently about three metres below the road surface.”

The closure will be in place between King’s Dyke level crossing and the water tower at Whittlesey. Diversions will be in place via Pondersbridge and North Bank, Peterborough.

It is set to impact hundreds of runners and spectators taking part in the Hereward Relay, from Peterborough to Ely, on Sunday. Although the course take runners on the Sustrans route and not via the A605, many athletes and supporters use the road to get to Peterborough for the start.

The fresh burst is linked to the burst at King’s Delph, Whittlesey, on Sunday which cut supplies to 7,000 homes for almost 18 hours.

Supplies were cut at about noon and Anglian Water contractors worked throughout the day and night to restore supplies by 5am Monday.

An Anglian Water spokesman said: “They are linked in when the burst occurred the main depressurised and when we cranked the pressure back up to turn supplies back on it puts a strain back on the pipe.

“This occasionally causes further bursts and this is what happened in his case.”

There are two bursts outside 122 Peterborough Road – but only one of them will be repaired this weekend. The second burst will be repaired “in the next week” but cannot be done at the same time because supplies would have to be shut off again.

The spokesman said: “We are going to be closing the road to make the repair from 9am Saturday. The road should be open by Monday morning assuming everything goes to plan.

“We will dig during day on Saturday and carry out the repair overnight. Will be working around the clock to get this repaired.

“The pipe we expect to be repairing feeds a fire hydrant so we hope customers will appreciate why it’s important to get this main fixed as soon as possible.”

He added: “We would have liked to have done both repairs at the same time but we can’t because if we did we would have interrupted the water supply for the whole of Whittlesey again and this would not have been acceptable.

“We don’t anticipate that these repairs will interrupt anyone’s supplies.”

The spokesman apologised for any inconvenience caused on the back of last week’s shut-off “but these are emergency repairs that must be fixed because there’s a risk that if we left them they could cause significant damage to the road if the leak got worse”.

Whittlesey Town Council and bus companies have all been informed of the work.

Residents affected by Sunday’s burst will also receive letters apologising for the interruption.