A water company says it hopes to re-open up a Lowestoft road to traffic at the weekend after it had to be closed off for safety reasons on Tuesday when it subsided due to a sewer chamber collapsing under it.

Anglia Water are investigating why the sewer chamber collapsed in London Road South and engineers will be carrying out temporary repairs to the road so it can re-opened over the weekend.

The water company will then carry out full repairs when the holiday season is over to keep disruption to traffic to a minimum.

London Road South was sealed off from the junction of Grosvenor Road in the Kirkley area of the town after reports it had subsided reached police at about 1.40pm.

The one way road, which heads into Lowestoft, had subsided about 20cms in places.

Antony Innes, spokesman from Anglian Water, said: 'We would like to assure customers in Lowestoft that important sewer repairs on London Road South will not be carried out during the summer months.

'The road had to be closed on Tuesday after the surface sank dramatically making it unsafe for road users.

'Engineers will be working in the coming days to make temporary repairs to a void beneath the surface and make sure the road is safe to use so it can be reopened over the weekend.

'We will then continue to work closely with the highways authority to plan a full programme of repair work on the damaged sewer chamber.

'We plan to start this work in September – after the busy summer holiday season.

'We are sorry for any inconvenience this temporary road closure has caused and are doing all we can to keep disruption to a minimum during this important time of year for the seaside resort.'

Because of the road being closed north bound motorists heading for Lowestoft are being asked to take the A12 into the town and avoid going through Pakefield and Kirkley to get to it.