Businesses have been closed today because of a power cut affecting properties on the north side of Abingdon High Street from 6am this morning.

Scottish and Southern Power, our local network provider, took over the Market Place at lunch time, and began using sniffing devices to find the fault.

Since then they have dug holes outside Outdoor Traders, and Helen and Douglas House and have been working hard late into the evening to rectify the problem.

Arriving home this evening I was suprised to find that Stert Street was closed to traffic. The road has been seeping water for a couple of months, and work has started to fix it.

A sign says work to be completed on 23rd January. Until then the road will be closed overnight, and open during the day.

The road closure caused chaos during the daytime today.

I wonder why there was such a sudden need to take action in the middle of the day, when it has been like that for weeks.

The northern end of Stert Street, from the junction with Stratton Way to Broad Street, was closed overnight because of a partially collapsed manhole cover that needed replacing.

Meanwhile there is a lot of water at the southern end of Stert Street from a leaking water main.

The other roadworks, the Culvert exploratory work, is nearly complete, and the contractors are just repairing the holes.

Investigation work to the Stert Culvert started on 26th November and will continue for about 2 weeks, in preparation for the main construction work planned for February / March 2015.

The investigation appears to involve holes being dug under the pavement area to make sure the culvert can be strengthened and the barriers removed.