Part of a major road into Peterborough is to be closed at the weekend so workers can clear tonnes of fat, rag and silt from a city sewer.

Anglian Water has asked for the closure of the Werrington Parkway section of the A15 so industrial jetters can be deployed to hose out the muck.  

The road will be shut between the A47 roundabout and the junction with the B1443 from 7.30pm on Saturday until 6am on Monday. The A47/A15 roundabout will remain open, although the inside lane will also be closed.  

Traffic will be diverted along the A15 Paston Parkway.  

The work is part of a huge, 12-week-long, £100,000 programme to clear the sewer under Lincoln Road, from the city centre up as far as Mountsteven Avenue.  

Since work started eight weeks ago, workmen have removed an incredible 200 tonnes of fat, rag and silt – about five tonnes every night.  

The firm regularly jets the section of sewer under the city centre; an area targeted as part of its ‘Keep It Clear’ campaign last summer. This aimed to tell food businesses and residents about the consequences of putting the wrong things down drains and toilets.  

As a result of the campaign, blockages in the area fell by two thirds and have remained low.  

However, away from the city centre, other parts of the sewer were still badly clogged with large quantities of fat and other deposits.  

John Clare from Anglian Water said: “The location of this sewer, under the A15 Werrington Parkway, makes it very difficult to clean properly because of the disruption it causes.  

“However, in recent months customers in the streets between St Paul’s Road and Chaucer Road have been reporting problems such as not being able to flush their toilets and this was clearly unacceptable. We had to act.     

“There is bound to be some inconvenience to motorists as a result of this road closure, although we are trying to minimise this by carrying out the work at the least busy time of the week.  

“We are very sorry for any disruption but this should make a real difference to customers and we hope people will understand the need to take action.  

He added: “The sheer amount of material which has accumulated in this sewer over the last few years is incredible. It really brings home the scale of the problem we are faced with in keeping the sewers clear.”