Road closure finally lifted on busy Sleaford town centre street

There was major traffic congestion on Grantham Road heading into Sleaford this morning (Thursday) and yesterday due to Westbanks/Watergate being closed to through traffic.

Drivers were queued back for much of the length of Grantham Road - tailing back as far as Rookery Avenue.

Westbanks and Watergate had been closed since on Tuesday afternoon near Interflora offices although drivers could still access much of the street including Sainsbury’s from Castle Causeway/King Edward Street.

The urgent excavation works were being carried out on Watergate by Western Power Distribution to locate and repair a low voltage cable fault.

A Western Power spokesman said: “Engineers worked through the night to complete the repair, following a fault on an underground cable.”

The plan was to temporarily resurface the road and lift the road closure yesterday, but a spokesman said the closure was not lifted until 10.30am this morning instead.

She said: “The curing time of the temporary Tarmac is dependant on weather conditions. We do apologise for the inconvenience. We were trying to do it as quickly as we could.”

Arrangements will then be made for a permanent repair to the road at an off peak time to minimise disruption as far as possible.