YORK'S Gillygate will be shut until at least next Monday after workmen discovered a sewer is more badly damaged than first realised.

Yorkshire Water said that during ongoing repairs to the sewer on the key city centre route, it had noticed additional damage which would require further repair work.

"Investigations are ongoing, but we believe this damage to be caused by a buried manhole cover that has collapsed onto and damaged the sewer in a different spot," said a spokesman.

"This means we will have to carry out a second excavation to repair this other section of sewer.

"As a result, we anticipate that Gillygate will remain closed over the weekend until Monday, when we hope to re-open it. We will do our best to complete this work sooner and would like to apologise for the delay."

He said the repair team would be working during the weekend and as late as possible into the evenings until around 7-8pm.

"We cannot work any later due to noise disruption that would adversely effect residents living on the road and several restaurants," he added.

The company has previously said its staff worked until late on Monday evening on repairs to the sewer - explaining its position after a reader poured scorn on claims it made on Monday that it would work 'round the clock' to fix the problems in Gillygate as soon as possible.

The reader took a photo of deserted roadworks at 8:20am on Tuesday, and said: "Not a soul to be seen! Work around the clock my ****!"

A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said yesterday afternoon: "We had a team quickly on site yesterday lunch time that worked into the late evening due to the circumstances of the incident on what is a busy road.

"Due to a new repair team assigned to this job, they arrived on site at 9am today but will be working until after 6pm.

"Tomorrow and beyond, they will be on site around 8:30am. The team will be working around 9 hours a day to repair Gillygate and we hope it can be fixed by Friday or sooner.

"We'd like to thank commuters and local businesses for their patience."

As The Press has reported previously, motorists and bus passengers have been facing disruption after the sewer collapse led to the closure of Gillygate.

The closure was initially thought to be in place until at least Friday but City of York Council has now announced Gillygate is likely to remain closed until Monday due to additional damage found, with works to  continue over the weekend.

City of York Council imposed an emergency temporary traffic restriction after a hole appeared in the carriageway about 30 yards from the Bootham junction on Monday morning.

Vehicles were barred from travelling towards York Hospital from Bootham and Lendal Bridge in the morning and were barred from travelling in the other direction from 3pm.

York's biggest bus operator First York has put in place a free shuttle service to ensure customers can continue to access York Hospital following the emergency closure, and a spokesman said the service would continue to operate all week.

"First York bus services are being disrupted including routes 1, 5, 5A and service 6 which is unable to access the hospital," he said.

He said the special shuttle service would run from 9am until 6pm today to give customers access to York Hospital from Burton Green roundabout to York Hospital via Burton Stone Lane. 

"The shuttle will operate every 30 minutes subject to traffic conditions. The need for the service will be reviewed on a daily basis."

"The following First York bus service diversions have been put in place: 1, 5, 5A via Rougier St, Ouse Bridge, Stonebow, Lord Mayor’s Walk. 6 via Bootham, Clifton, Burton Stone Lane (will be unable to serve Hospital)

"Customers can also access York Hospital by using service 1, 5 or 5A and alighting at Union Terrace."

He thanked customers in advance for their patience as extra resources were deployed to minimise disruption.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service said ambulances travelling to and from York Hospital would have to take alternative routes, but it did not envisage this causing major problems.