Highways bosses investigating why part of the A47 keeps flooding hope repairs to a damaged water pipe should prevent a repeat when Storm Ciarán hits Norfolk.

But teams are on standby ready to pump away excess water, should an issue which has caused major disruption and delay happen again.

The road to the west of Norwich, between Easton and Honingham, has flooded four times in recent weeks and, after Storm Babet swept the county, it was twice completely shut for hours.

Eastern Daily Press: The A47 west of Norwich has repeatedly floodedThe A47 west of Norwich has repeatedly flooded (Image: Zoe Rowling)

The flooding, unprecedented in the area, coincided with contractors for National Highways carrying out preparatory work on surrounding land ahead of dualling of the road between Easton and North Tuddenham.

National Highways insisted the flooding was not connected with that work, but launched an investigation.

That identified a damaged pipe on private land as contributing to standing water on the road.

A spokesman for National Highways said: "The persistent flooding on the A47 around Honingham has been treated as a priority, and we have undertaken investigation work since last week to trace the cause.

"We believe this is down to a number of factors which includes significant damage to a nearby water pipe which sits on private land.

"Repair work to the pipe began on Monday night and will continue overnight this week to minimise local disruption.

"National Highways plan to complete this ahead of Storm Ciarán, which is expected to hit the country in the early hours of Thursday.

"While we believe this work will improve the situation, pumping equipment will remain at the scene throughout this week to mitigate any further heavy rainfall.

"Tracing and addressing all the factors leading to localised flooding following unprecedented rainfall can be a complex problem, but National Highways remains committed to providing a permanent solution to the issues we have seen at Honingham over recent weeks."

READ MORE: Storm Ciarán in Norfolk leads to travel and flood warnings

Storm Ciarán is set to bring a fresh bout of wind and rain to the UK from Wednesday night and into Thursday.

The Met Office has issued yellow warnings for winds up to 50mph in parts of Norfolk and “danger to life” warnings in other parts of the country.