Scroll down for video

WORK to install nearly one kilometre of water main to protect hundreds of Wokingham homes from burst pipes is progressing well, according to South East Water.

Construction on Woosehill Spine Road, between the junctions of Sirius Close and Dorset Way, began on Monday, July 23 and is running to schedule.

During the past four weeks more than 340 metres of new pipeline has been installed and work will continue to place new pipes within Heron Road from the junction of Woosehill Spine Road to the junction of Kestrel Way.

From there, a section on Dorset Way, from the junction of Woosehill Spine Road to a point near Kestraven Way, will also receive an upgrade.

On Thursday, South East Water’s engineers met with Wokingham Borough Council’s Highways department and agreed to begin reinstating the road where the pipe has been laid over the weekend ready to re-open a section of road to two-way traffic on Monday evening.

The company hopes this will ease congestion by reducing the working area from 200 metres to around 100 metres with three-way traffic lights at the Heron Road junction.

Jeremy Dufour, South East Water’s project manager, said: “We are aware there’s been a build-up of traffic during peak hours and are sorry to those motorists who have been caught in delays.

“A combination of factors including the lights being tampered with, vehicles jumping red lights, which causes the system to re-set, and staffing issues with those manually controlling the lights have led to periods of traffic build up.

“From Monday evening we’re hopeful the situation will improve as our working area will be significantly reduced but we’ll continue to monitor the situation extremely closely.”

It is anticipated that the £300,000 project will be completed within 23 weeks and construction will continue to be carried out in stages.