EMERGENCY work to stabilise the crumbling Loftus Bank embankment is forcing council bosses to close the road at the weekend.

A monitoring system, measuring 17 positions along the roadside, has shown a small section has dropped further over the past week.

Specialist contractors have been called in to carry out the remedial work and the programme is scheduled to last 30 hours, from midnight on Saturday until 6am on Monday.

A huge excavator, with a 15-metre reach, is being brought in for the work, which involves regrading part of the embankment along the A174.

A leaflet explaining the need for the road closure is being sent to 4,000 homes in Loftus and diversion signs, taking traffic on to the Moors Road, are also being put in place.

The road is already reduced to one carriageway, with traffic light control, while an in depth investigation is carried out for planned works next year.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council's cabinet member for strategic planning, development and infrastructure, Coun Eric Sempson, said: "We regret having to close the road for any length of time, but I'm afraid this is unavoidable. We are taking the best advice available and as a result of the monitoring system we have installed, we have detected a drop of about ten inches over the last week.

"To remedy that, we believe the quickest solution is to work over the weekend and avoid a peak-time closure. It is going to cause a degree of inconvenience but we hope everyone will understand it is necessary."

Investigations are continuing into the causes of a landslip in the road in July and a report on the findings is expected to be completed by the end of the year or early 2005.

The council insists there is no link with £2.5m repairs carried out to the road three years ago.