MOTORISTS are facing days of traffic misery following a burst water main on one of York's main roads.

The burst, at the junction of Melrosegate and Hull Road, which caused a huge hole in the road, is forcing drivers to take lengthy diversions, with knock-on problems reported as far away as Tadcaster Road, Haxby Road and Huntington Road.

Council bosses say it was "absolute chaos" in Tang Hall Lane during this morning's rush hour, with many commuters stuck in long queues and arriving late for work.

Yorkshire Water said it hoped the huge main could be repaired by tonight, but Bill Woolley, City of York Council's acting director of environment and development services, said it would then be necessary to check if other services had been affected by the burst before a major reinstatement of the badly-damaged road could begin.

He believed it would be at least the end of the week before the repairs could be completed and all roads could reopen.

Up to 200 properties were left without water for more than four hours after the 12-inch main burst yesterday morning.

Police were called in to direct traffic after water forced its way through the tarmac and poured along roads at about 9am yesterday morning. Fast-flowing water up to six inches deep flooded drains and deposited debris along the sides of the roads, forcing the closure of Melrosegate and Green Dykes Lane, and slowing traffic along Hull Road to a crawl.

Yorkshire Water engineers worked to identify the exact location of the problem, but their task was made more difficult by the number of water mains in the area.

It was not until 2pm that the burst had been repaired and a full water supply restored to residents.

A police spokesman said: "Traffic is going to be a problem for at least a couple of weeks. One lane is open in each direction in Hull Road, but Melrosegate will be completely closed up to its junction with Alcuin Avenue. Green Dykes Lane is also closed up to the Heslington Road junction, but this could open again shortly."

The AA said motorists should try to plan an alternative route into and out of the city for the coming days, while work continued at the site.

Karen O'Rourke, a spokeswoman for Yorkshire Water, said: "We had a report of a burst, and we were there within half an hour.

"There are four water mains in that area, and we had to check each one of them, so it took some time before we could identify which one had burst. We left the burst running to keep the problem as low-impact as possible, so some people were left with a reduced supply."

She said up to 200 properties in the YO10 area of York had either no water at all or reduced pressure.

She said: "It is very difficult to say what caused this, but the cold weather could have been a factor. Our priority was to repair the burst, which we had done by Sunday afternoon. During the day we responded to calls from vulnerable customers with deliveries of bottled water.

"We will now be working with the Highways Agency to make good any problems there are with the roads."

City of York councillor Ruth Potter, who lives in Chaucer Street, said: "The water was working when I got up, because I was able to fill up the kettle for a cup of tea - but when I went for a shower there was but a trickle. I tried to wash with what little water there was, and then I spent the day in town. Thankfully it was on again when I came home - it was a day of the 'great unwashed', I suppose."

Updated: 10:20 Monday, November 22, 2004