Hockerill Street closed as ‘sinkhole’ appears but drivers ignore ‘emergency road closure’ signs

A “sinkhole” was starting to emerge on Tuesday (July 30) at the site of road works that led to a main route into Bishop’s Stortford town centre being closed.

An emergency road closure of the westbound carriageway of Hockerill Street at its junction with Stansted Road, Dunmow Road and London Road was put in place on Saturday (July 27).

Motorists, including lorry drivers, ignored the “Emergency road closure” signs and squeezed their vehicles down the wrong side of the road between oncoming traffic and barriers.

The closure was put in place after workers from Ringway – the contractor for highways authority Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) – visited the site to inspect another hole in the road.

Neil Peck saw the hole as he was walking to The Cock Inn in Stansted Road on Friday evening and could not believe it.

“There was a huge gap from the hole to anything solid underneath,” he said. “It wouldn’t have taken much for a heavy vehicle to have gone through what is basically a sinkhole.”

As temperatures soared on Tuesday another hole appeared near the original one. It was around 8in (20cm) in diameter with 2ft cracks around it.

An Affinity Water worker stuck a broom into the hole and it went down at least 4ft.

HCC sent an inspector to the site on Monday afternoon after the Indie alerted it to the dangers from drivers being unaware of the road closure until the last second.

A spokesperson said on Monday a “void” due to a water leak had been discovered, adding: “Our maintenance contractor has temporarily made the area safe and the site has been handed over to Affinity Water to carry out the necessary repairs.

“Affinity Water are expected on site this afternoon to begin repair work. Until they have had an opportunity to examine the site and submit a permit, we cannot confirm how long repairs will take. However, we will be working with Affinity Water to minimise disruption as much as possible.”

When the Indie visited the scene on Tuesday morning, although workers had dug a trench a few yards down from the void to fix the leak, there were still no signs warning drivers of the road closure. However, they were in place in Stansted Road, Dunmow Road and London Road by the end of the afternoon.

Some motorists indicating to turn right from Stansted Road into Hockerill Street stopped short of making the manoeuvre, but others squeezed through on the wrong side of the road.

At one stage an M&S lorry driver ignored the closure sign and drove straight down while there was no traffic coming up the eastbound carriageway of Hockerill Street.

Another lorry driver tried to get through, despite facing an oncoming car, but after a pedestrian shouted at him he eventually reversed and turned to go along London Road.

Anna Lysakowski, owner of Bodice and Bustle on Hockerill Street, said she had been complaining about a leak in the road, from which she said “stinky sewage” had flowed, for the past two months.

“On Thursday we were looking at the leak because it was so smelly,” said Anna. Then she said an indentation – around 6in (15cm) deep and 12in (30cm) in diameter – appeared in the road on Friday.

On Saturday morning she noticed a hole had formed. “When we looked into it we couldn’t see the bottom,” said Anna.

She said 15 to 20 workers from Ringway attended on Saturday, some taking photos. The hole was covered, a cone placed on top and steel barriers put around it, with an “Emergency road closure” sign in place.

Affinity Water workers turned up on Monday and waited for a couple of hours before starting work at around 6.30pm.

On Tuesday afternoon, after the second hole appeared, Affinity workers returned to cover it with another cone.

The Indie has requested an update from both HCC and Affinity.