Water staff looking into Little Chapel sinkhole

The hole, which appeared on Thursday evening in Route de St Andre, was immediately attended to by police.

A Guernsey Water confirmed the sinkhole was about a metre deep and the road was far too dangerous to leave open.

Guernsey Water teams – including people who were on leave – were on site throughout the day assessing the situation and forming a plan on how to fix the culvert, fill the hole and reopen the road.

Operations manager Jon Holt said there was no timeframe for when the road would reopen at this stage. ‘Teams will be working throughout the weekend in order to get the road reopened as soon as possible,’ he said.

‘We are sorry for the inconvenience this is going to cause, but please be assured we are doing what we can to fix this as soon as possible.’

Route de St Andre was being used by many as part of the diversion around the airport due to the closure of Forest Road.

Roads & Traffic Management manager Phil Ogier said the hole had meant the eastbound diversion had been changed so that traffic in both directions was now be required to use La Rue des Agneaux and La Villiaze Road, past Specsavers.

‘To provide additional options for routing, we’ve also removed a no entry sign which was previously in place at the southern end of Route des Blicqs,’ he said.

‘Those who are driving are asked to observe the temporary 20mph speed limits that are in place and to note that there are likely to be sections of road where they will be required to carefully mount footpaths, with due regard for other road users, to pass other traffic including scheduled bus services.’

A section of the road next to the hole is prone to flooding after heavy rain and in the past the water has been deep enough for cars to get stuck in it.

• A number of bus routes are affected by the closure 71, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, N3 and S3, with full details available on the CT Plus website.