VILLAGERS and motorists faced chaos on Wednesday when a water main burst under the A39 by the Dragon House Hotel near Bilbrook. People living in three villages, including Old Cleeve, were warned they could be without water for up to six hours while the leak was traced and repaired. Motorists, meanwhile, faced lengthy delays as the road was closed at both Washford Cross and Carhampton and traffic diverted through Blue Anchor. A spokesman for Wessex Water said the company had received calls about a burst main just after 2.30pm. However, knowing they would have to turn off the water supply in order to find and repair the damage, a team of engineers delayed the repair job until after 8pm in order to notify villagers of the problem. Once the supply was turned off, they were able to locate the problem to a connection off a main nine- inch water pipe. It took just under four hours for the damage to be repaired, with householders reconnected around midnight. A spokesman for Wessex Water said: "Because there are two water mains beneath the road - a six inch and a nine inch pipe - we had to wait until the water was switched off to find out which pipe had the problem. "Once we found that out it was quite an easy repair to do." The road was reopened to traffic at 3.30am.
