Weeks of disruption and inconvenience finally came to an end as Windsor's Dedworth Road opened up again on Wednesday.

Work by Thames Water closed the road at the junction of White Horse Road a month ago forcing shoppers coming from the Maidenhead direction to a frustrating dead end, only yards before they could reach the Tesco car park and necessitating a long detour via Maidenhead Road.

The actual area of road being worked on was small. But it closed off Dedworth Road as a direct route between Windsor and Maidenhead in both directions.

This week - as the road finally reopened Wednesday morning - a spokesman for Thames Water said that the problem had been caused by a collapsed sewer three metres below ground.

The spokesman said teams had had to hand dig rather than use machines and risk damaging the numerous pipes and cables close to the sewer, adding: "This meant the job took longer than first thought."

She said that complaints that nothing was happening on the site could have been because there was no machinery and the men were working at the bottom of a three metre deep hole.

She added that for two days after the hole was filled in work teams had had to wait for tarmac to be delivered and allow it to set while carrying out work on other sites.