Engineers do not know when a road in Watford will reopen, after a hole appeared in it ten days ago.

Hertfordshire County Council closed Vicarage Road on August 5, after a sewer collapsed three metres below ground.

Thames Water’s engineers began working on the damaged pipe on August 11.

Speaking on Friday, the company said it does not know when the road will reopen, but they expect work to take more than a week.

Thames Water regional manager Sam Hazelton said: “We are very aware how disruptive our work is and we will be doing everything we can to be out of the way as quickly as possible.

“This pipe has to be repaired because if we leave it, waste water could seep out under the road and make it unstable, which would clearly be dangerous for road users.

“We will be visiting nearby businesses over the next couple of days to provide them with information about our work and will do our best to keep everyone updated on our progress.

“At the moment it is difficult to say how long the job will take as we do not know how much of the pipe we need to replace, but we expect it to be more than a week.

“We will be in close contact with the council on how traffic is managed on match day next Saturday.”

Progress is slow because the team has been using shovels to dig. There are power cables and gas pipes close to the broken sewer which means machinery cannot be used.

The road will remain closed between the junctions with Farraline Road and Harwoods Road.

Engineers will be working on-site between 9am and 9pm on weekdays, between 9am and 5pm on Saturdays and between 9am and 4pm on Sundays.