We understand that there are other road closures happening in Wisbech and the surrounding area, which has caused some confusion around which signs to follow. To make things clearer, we’ve marked all of our diversion signs with stars ★, so if you’re following our route, please look out for the starred signs along the way.

Our site team checks all traffic management signs daily to make sure they’re in the correct and safe positions. We’ll continue doing this until our work is completed in March 2026.

We have an agreed road closure permit with Cambridgeshire Highways for Barton Road to remain closed until the middle of March 2026. You can see the official diversion route here.

The geological challenges in this location are significant. Now that the area has been disturbed, the need to physically stabilise the area before the pipe can be fixed and road can be rebuilt is essential. If we didn’t do this now, it would lead to a sink hole in the future, quickly putting us back in the position we’re in now.

We’re continuing to review our construction programme with our Contractors and are hopeful that the programme can be beaten. As you will appreciate, however, we are committed to not taking short cuts that compromise the safety of our workforce, the public and property, as well as increasing the likelihood of environmental pollution.

During a new sewer connection, our 300mm cement gravity foul sewer was damaged and as a consequence the surrounding ground, including the road and footpath, have been badly affected. The developer attempted to remediate it, but additional complications came to light and we took over the site on 9 September 2025. Prior to this date we had installed over-pumping to keep customers taps flowing and toilets flushing following the damage to our sewer pipe.

We’ll be working Monday to Friday, 7am to 7pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 7am to 5pm, where the work allows. There may be times when we’re not visible on site during these hours, but we’ll keep the community updated through our weekly updates on our website and site noticeboard.

The site will be closed on 9 November for Remembrance Sunday, and we’ll also shut down over Christmas.

You can expect it to be noisy at times. The main disturbance will come from machinery breaking up the road, drilling for ground stabilisation, and installing the new sewer. We’ll do our best to keep disruption to a minimum, but some noise is unavoidable while the work takes place.

We understand that traffic is using alternative diversion routes which are less suitable. Following feedback from the community about the condition of the alternative diversion routes, we understand that Cambridgeshire County Council Highways Authority are putting in place a maintenance plan to fix a number of potholes over the coming weeks.

Our specialist contractor, Geobear, will be restabilising approximately 5,500m3 of ground using the Geopolymer:

- They will be drilling and injecting 460 points using over 21 tonnes of geopolymer

- They will aim to drill and inject 30 points per day with injections varying in depth from 1.3 metres below ground to 6.3 metres

- Typically on conventional highway schemes they emit up to 62.43% less carbon than more traditional methods

- They have successfully treated over 10,000 sites in the UK and completed 100,000 projects worldwide

- 95% strength achieved in 30-60 seconds.

We’re making a major investment in Wisbech and the surrounding villages to replace ageing water pipes that have reached the end of their useful life. Right now, we already have 20 pipe replacement projects planned or under way, with over £8.6 million committed so far. These first 20 projects will see us install 37.27 km (around 23 miles) of new water pipes — roughly the distance from Wisbech to King’s Lynn and back again. This investment will continue to grow as we plan more work between now and 2030.

Because many of the pipes in the area are coming to the end of their useful life, some might burst while we're still working on Barton Road. One of these bursts happened on the 4th November on Leverington Common and needed a temporary road closure, which affected the diversion route for the Barton Road closure. While we’re focused on finishing the work on Barton Road, we can’t replace some nearby pipes until the road is reopened, so unfortunately situations like this are likely to happen again. When bursts do happen, we’ll get to them as quickly as we can to minimise disruption to the community.

This work is part of our wider £348 million investment to improve water pipes across the East of England, helping reduce leaks and keep water flowing for years to come, find out more about it here. A big chunk of the investment is around and in Wisbech, and these are the projects we've currently got planned or are already underway:

- Gadds Lane, Leverington, Wisbech
- Fen Road, Newton-in-the-Isle
- Cat’s Lane, Tydd St Giles
- Grangehill Road, Sutton St James
- Park Road, Black Dike
- Hannath Road, Tydd St Giles
- Laddus Drove
- Sycamores, Fifty Road, Welney
- B1093 Fifty Road, Welney
- Welney Mill Row
- Euximoor Drove
- Harolds Bank, Gorefield, Wisbech
- Elloe Bank, Gorefield, Wisbech
- Popple Drove, Gorefield, Wisbech
- Crooked Bank, Wisbech
- Gull Drove, Wisbech
- Black Lane, Gorefield, Wisbech
- Market Lane, Walpole
- Fen Road, Parson Drove
- Long Drove to Parson Drove