WORKS to repair a collapsed section of the Forty Foot Bank between Chatteris and Ramsey have been finished early and the road is due to open by this weekend. The £220,000 works were due to take six weeks to complete but contractors working for Cambridgesh

WORKS to repair a collapsed section of the Forty Foot Bank between Chatteris and Ramsey have been finished early and the road is due to open by this weekend.

The £220,000 works were due to take six weeks to complete but contractors working for Cambridgeshire County Council finished the job in five.

Gareth Guest, senior bridge engineer for the council, said: "We would like to thank motorists for their patience while the work was carried out and remind them that although the temporary 30mph limit will now go back to 50 they should drive carefully."

He said that because of the unstable nature of the bank and the close proximity of a home and old water main a silent push piling technique was used which causes less vibration than traditional methods.

"Due to the large machinery needed the road had to be closed to traffic for the safety of motorists and engineers working on the scheme," he said. "However, this has meant the work could be completed as quickly as possible."

The works included pushing 12 metre long sheet steel piles into the underlying clay strata some 10 metres below for a length of 30 metres along the watercourse edge. This allowed the construction of a new sheet piled retaining wall and the creation of a new road embankment.