The closure of a major road following a sewer pipe leak could last for a number of weeks.

A Thames Water spokeswoman said: "Work by Thames Water engineers to repair a leaking pressurised sewer pipe along the A23 is continuing. Early estimates are that it could last for a number of weeks.

"The leak was detected on Sunday when a 6-inch diameter hole was spotted to the side of the northbound carriageway and the road surface began to show signs of weakness. The stretch of road between the Fleming Way and Lowfield Heath roundabouts was immediately closed and has been deemed unsafe for traffic due to the burst pipe below.

"The leaking pipe carries wastewater away from around a third of properties in Crawley so engineers have had to carefully plan how to divert the flow of water away from the damaged pipe to prevent sewage backing up in other parts of the network.

"This will be done using 1.7km of over ground pipes which will be laid between the area of the burst and another nearby sewer. Thames Water have consulted with local landowners on the placement of the temporary pipes.

"From tonight one lane of the southbound carriageway between the same two roundabouts will also be closed to allow the repair work to continue."

Mark Taylor, Thames Water Head of programme delivery, said: “This is a complex repair and we need to make sure we do it in a way that doesn’t affect the removal of waste from our customers’ properties so it’s taken a lot of planning. We’re really sorry for the disruption this is causing but we’re doing all we can to get this fixed as quickly as possible including working through the night.”