Cause of sinkhole revealed – with aim to reopen road by weekend

Highways bosses hope to reopen King Street in Lynn in time for the weekend after repairing a sinkhole.

The road has been shut off to drivers since yesterday morning (Wednesday) after part of the road collapsed on Saturday, with police taping the area off.

The issue was caused by a fractured Norfolk County Council-maintained surface water line, which over time has washed away material from under the carriageway into the combined foul system maintained by Anglian Water.

This created a void underground which the highways crews were not aware of, leading to failure of the carriageway surface and the sinkhole appearing.

Following Anglian Water’s investigation to confirm its combined system is still working efficiently, the county council has now instructed its contractor Norse to repair the surface water line and reinstatement to the sub-base and carriageway surface.

This work was undertaken today (Thursday), and staff hope to have the road fully reopened in time for the weekend.