A HEAVY-DUTY drainage pump was yesterday used to help drain more than five million litres of water that flooded 40 miles of one of the region’s main roads.

The Highways Agency pledged to conduct a full review into the flooding of the A1 between Dishforth, in North Yorkshire and Bradbury, near Durham City, after being forced to close the road for two days.

A high-volume pump manned by fire crews from West Yorkshire – the nearest crew with the machinery available – was installed near Hackforth, just south of Catterick , to pump water one kilometre to fields where it would no longer pose a risk to road users.

It meant one lane of the northbound carriageway at Hackforth could reopen to traffic at 3.45pm yesterday.

The southbound carriageway, which was also closed around Catterick was fully reopened on Wednesday after floodwater was cleared from there and along sections of the A19 and A66.

However, the inside lane of the northbound carriageway will remain closed today to allow flood water to be continued to be pumped away.

Highways Agency operational manager Chris Holehouse said: “Highways Agency staff and contractors have been working around the clock to get both carriageways reopen.

“A hole was dug on the verge at the side of the northbound carriageway to allow water to drain from the road, then the pump is sucking it back out and carrying it one kilometre away to where it can be safely disposed of.”

The section of the A1 that flooded – which campaigners have called to be upgraded for years – had ground water filter drains that would have been put in when the road was made into a dual-carriageway in the 1970s.

Mr Holehouse said he was confident the drains were clear of debris because contractors clean them on a regular basis – although he could not say when they were last cleared.

“The drainage system is adequate, but there was nowhere for the water to drain away to,” he said. “All the fields were saturated and we experienced a month’s worth of rainfall in 24 hours.

“Added to that, this was not just rainfall – this was water flowing from fields that was far above what is normal.

“There will be a major review and we will decide from there what we can learn from how we handled the situation, how the infrastructure coped and what improvements can be made – but I can’t tell now what they will be.”