DRIVERS faced more traffic hell as a water main burst in a busy road.

Anglian Water had to reduce traffic in St John's Road in Colchester to one lane after a water main burst.

The road is already suffering heavy congestion, as it is being used as an alternative route during the Ipswich Road improvement scheme.

The water main could take up to three days to fix.

David Andrews, who contacted Anglian Water about the incident, said: "It's sod's law, it's an old Victorian main so it's a lot more difficult and it's deeper under ground.

"It's not a quick fix. They put on the website that it happened first thing in the morning on Tuesday.

"I called them and they said it could take up until October 12 to fix."

He said on Tuesday morning the traffic was at a standstill.

He added: "The problem is everyone is using St John's Road to avoid Ipswich Road.

"Also in Harwich Rd the traffic queue was down to the Co-op."

The incident happened at the junction with the A137.

A spokesman for Anglian Water said: "Our teams have located a leak on a water pipe in Parsons Heath in Colchester.

"Due to the location of the leak, which is near a streetlight, we’ve had to wait for the light to be disconnected to allow our engineers to repair the pipe safely.

“This work has been completed, meaning we can undertake our repair today.

"Two-way traffic lights will remain in place along Parsons Heath until the repair on the water main is completed.

"We’re sorry for any inconvenience this causes, our teams are working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible.”