WORK is now underway (yet again) on a troublesome gas main in Stanford-le-Hope.

For more than 15 years excavations have taken place to repair the aging pipes below the busy London Road, close to the junctions with Kingsman Road and Rayleigh Road.

It was last dug up in May 2025 and work has taken place so often, the spot has been dubbed 'The hole that won't go away'.

It was reopened up again today (Wednesday, 16 September) as engineers moved in to deal with the latest leak and the work is expected to take a couple of days at least, though service operators Cadent have not yet commented on the current incident.

Residents were not notified in advance of the latest excavation, which requires single lane traffic management and has brought parking restrictions in the area as well as queues of traffic passing by the works. The first they knew was when a traffic management team arrived last night to set up preliminary signage and leave equipment - some of which was stolen overnight!

Earlier this year London Road was fully closed in a major programme of work to replace the whole main from Butts Road to Southend Road, but after weeks of disruption Cadent brought the works to a halt - saying the rest of the main would be replaced at a later date. The replacement main that was installed ended just short of where work began today.

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To add to local traffic disruption, nearby Rookery Close (another road off London Road) is closed for resurfacing work being carried out by Thurrock Council. That is expected to take a couple of days.