Prestwich Sinkhole: Collapsed Sewer Shuts Road to 6 Oct

United Utilities says a collapsed sewer caused the sinkhole that has closed Heywood Road in Prestwich. Its engineers have started repairs. The permit holding the road shut runs to Tuesday 6 October.

A second permit has since appeared on the street works register, at the Heys Road junction, under temporary traffic lights, to the same date.

What United Utilities has said

The company has issued two statements this week, and they say different things.

In the first, carried by BBC News on Wednesday, a spokesperson said: “We have engineers on site carrying out further assessments to determine the cause of the sinkhole and establish whether it is linked to any United Utilities assets.”

Later on Wednesday the company issued an update. A spokesperson said, in a statement reported by the Bury Times: “Our engineers have started repairs to a collapsed sewer on Heywood Road in Prestwich, which has resulted in a sinkhole forming in the road. To allow the repairs to be carried out safely and efficiently, the road has been closed. We apologise for the disruption this may cause and will do everything we can to complete the work as quickly as possible.”

Neither United Utilities nor Bury Council had published anything about the sinkhole on its own website by Friday afternoon. We checked the United Utilities newsroom, its incident checker for the M25 postcodes, the council’s road works page and the council’s newsroom.

What the register shows

Three permits cover the junction, all logged on Greater Manchester road works online, the Transport for Greater Manchester map that Bury Council points residents to.

The Heys Road permit is the new one. It carries the same job reference as the road closure with an A added, HZ73102530170-4451673A, and it is logged as immediate and urgent. Both United Utilities permits give 0345 672 3723 as the contact number.

A planned end date on an emergency permit is an estimate. It can move.

Three utilities were working at that junction that week

The register also records work finishing at the junction shortly before the ground gave way. We are setting it out because it is on the public record, not because anyone has linked it to the collapse.

• United Utilities logged urgent footway works on Heys Road from 7.33am on 8 September, closed as completed at 11.34am on Monday 14 September. Its map point is about 30 metres from where the sinkhole permit sits.
• Cadent Gas worked in the Heys Road footway from 15 to 18 September, for a disconnection or alteration of supply.
• Bury Council logged its emergency road closure at 4.30pm on Tuesday 15 September.

Nothing in the register connects those jobs to the sinkhole. United Utilities has not suggested they are linked, and on Wednesday it was still establishing whether its own assets were involved.

The third sinkhole here in a decade

BBC News reported that this is the third sinkhole on Heywood Road in ten years, after collapses in 2016 and 2023, and that both earlier ones followed sewer collapses. We could not verify those two from a public register today. The Greater Manchester map carries only current and recent permits, and the national street works archive has not yet published anything later than August 2026.

Buses are still on diversion

The Transport for Greater Manchester travel alert was last updated at 5.56pm on Tuesday 15 September and was still live on Friday. It has no end date. Four Bee Network services are affected.

Another emergency closure 330 metres away

Bury Council also has Back Bury Old Road closed from midday on 15 September to 30 September, logged as an immediate emergency. United Utilities has urgent works on the same street from 15 to 21 September. On the register’s own coordinates the two sites are about 330 metres north of the sinkhole.

Seven more permits across Prestwich to November

Beyond the emergency, the register lists a run of United Utilities permits on Prestwich streets sharing the reference stem HZ8060283-02.

The permits carry no description, so the register does not say what the work is for. United Utilities announced in April that it is spending £2.5m on an underground storage tank off Clifton Road in Prestwich, part of a £34m programme across Bury, Prestwich and Whitefield, due to finish this autumn. The register does not say whether these permits belong to that scheme.

Separately, United Utilities has a minor job on Heywood Road from 21 to 23 September, near Mount Road, for a disconnection or alteration of supply.

Bury Council also intends to close the Bury Old Road service road between Polefield Approach and Heywood Road for resurfacing. That notice is a proposed order dated 17 September. The register now carries the council’s own permit for it, 19 to 24 October.

What it means for you

• Driving: Heywood Road is shut at Heys Road and Heys Road itself is on temporary lights. Both permits run to 6 October. Expect the lights at Rectory Lane to stay until 16 October, and a second set on Heywood Road from 12 October.
• On the bus: the stop on Heywood Road near Heys Road is not being served. Check the TfGM alert before you travel, and allow extra time for the 894 and 895 to St Monica’s.
• Reporting a problem with the repair: United Utilities gives 0345 672 3723 on both permits.
• Later this autumn: if you live on Rectory Green, Deyne Avenue, The Crescent, Mountfield or Brookfield, there is a permit for your street between now and 20 November.

For everything else shut across the borough this week, see our Bury roadworks and travel page.

Updated Friday 18 September 2026. This article was first published on 17 September, reporting the closure from the street works permits before either United Utilities or Bury Council had said what caused it. It has been updated with United Utilities’ confirmation that a collapsed sewer is responsible and that repairs have started, the second permit at the Heys Road junction, the other works logged around that junction, and the wider run of Prestwich permits.