A road was closed at the weekend – 11 hours after a burst pipe flooded a junction in Dulwich, writes Joe Rattue…
Traffic was diverted from Park Hall Road at 9.30pm after a water main – seven inches in diameter – was punctured outside the Gipsy Hill Telephone Exchange.
A member of the repair crew from Thames Water said the burst took place at approximately 10am.
The water leaked through cracks in the kerb on each side of the vehicle entrance to the exchange and left a ten-metre stretch of the road three inches underwater, which disrupted traffic.
The repair crew said the burst was likely caused either by ground movement or weathering over time.
One worker added: “It’s the old Victorian pipes.”
The incident comes nine months after a burst caused evacuations due to fears of roads collapsing in Bermondsey and fourteen months after a burst in Dulwich left households in Sydenham and Crystal Palace without running water for three days.
London’s pipes burst 36,000 times from 2011 to 2018, which the then head of networks at Thames Water attributed in part to the city’s clay soil eroding the pipes.
Park Hall Road is currently expected to remain closed for repairs until this Saturday.
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Thames Water was approached for comment.
