CONTRACTORS have been battling to remove water and sewage from a road by the River Itchen for three days.
Kiln Lane, near Colden Common and Otterbourne, remains closed and work continues after flooding and raw sewage began flowing from a lifted manhole into a Hampshire chalk stream on Saturday, January 14.
Brambridge Garden Centre has remained open throughout the works and is accessible through Highbridge Road.
Contractors MTS, employed by Southern Water, arrived on Saturday evening and have been working 18 hours days to combat the flooding and stop sewage going into the River Itchen.
City councillor Sue Cook has been at the site every day and initially had to battle to get the road closed, with the lifted manhole being a danger to cars and cyclists.
Multiple tankers have been travelling to and from the site for three days to remove the excess water and take it to Chickenhall Wastewater Treatment works in Eastleigh.
READ MORE: Brambridge: Flooding and sewage flows into River Itchen again
MTS have begun cleaning the road with a cleansing machine now that the water level has been reduced to a safe level.
Cllr Cook said: “There’s now no water going into the Itchen and they’ve put up grating and sandbanks to prevent the sewage from moving.
“The water level in the manhole has dropped massively but if there was a deluge of rain it would probably come up again.”
The councillor believes the work will be done by Thursday, January 17 at the latest. She continued: “This is an ongoing issue so I won’t stop asking questions. I want answers and I want it sorted. Southern Water needs to find a proper solution so we don’t have sewage going into the river.”
SEE ALSO: Brambridge: sewage flows into iconic Hampshire chalk stream
Despite frustrations with Southern Water and Hampshire Highways after they failed to close the road until Saturday night when the flooding began as early as Friday, Sue Cook praised the contractors for their “tireless and brilliant work”.
A spokesperson for Southern Water said: “Over the weekend, we had to close Kiln Lane because of the issue reoccurring due to heavy rain. We are mitigating any environmental impact with tankers and will look to reopen the road as soon as possible.
“Our enquiries have uncovered issues with the sewer network in this area, and we have already carried out a number of improvements and investigations in an effort to solve the problems.
“Although these have helped, these have unfortunately not yet resolved the matter, which is why we are in the process of delivering a scheme to allow a greater volume of flow during wet weather which will help reduce flooding and pollution events.”
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