Hundreds of people were left without water after contractors burst a water main at a Shrewsbury building site.
It is the second time in six months that contractors working on the Ellesmere Road site in the town have damaged a water main.
The latest incident on the site, where Barratt Homes have permission to build 128 homes and apartments, happened at about 4pm yesterday.
Severn Trent Water said it received more than 200 calls within an hour of the incident from concerned residents who had no water.
The site was flooded following the burst, but today Severn Trent could not say how much of this came from the water main and how much may have been surface water from recent rain.
In September, a JCB struck the water main leaving properties in the area without supply and sending a 40ft jet of water spouting up into the air at the building site.
Today a spokeswoman for Severn Trent said yesterday’s incident involved a 15-inch main that was damaged and inspectors were sent to investigate.”
She said: “The contractors are working in the area and we’re not sure exactly what happened but they damaged it in some way that meant we had the burst.
“By 5pm we had received 233 calls from customers saying they had no water. We re-zoned it which meant we isolated the water main and got a water source from another area.”
The spokeswoman added: “We diverted the water so that we could get everybody back on.
“It was a temporary measure to make sure everybody’s back on with water and then we can pay proper attention to the water main to get that repaired.”
She said the water supply for customers was back on by 5.45pm yesterday.
Today work was taking place to repair the water main which was expected to be fixed by lunchtime.
Barratt Homes site manager Richard Hilditch said: “We were using some contractors to do a bore hole and they had all the co-ordinators there to dig but came on and dug in the wrong place.
“As soon as we realised it, we got Severn Trent involved and the water put back on. Severn Trent diverted the water to keep everyone on and they are repairing the pipe now.
“We are obviously sorry for any inconvenience to people it may have caused.
“It caused considerable damage to the site and briefly disrupted work and flooded the site,” Mr Hilditch added.
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