THAMES Water says the London-bound carriageway of the A210 (Eltham Hill) will re-open on 9am on Saturday.

It is the fourth time the firm has extended the deadline for repair works to be completed after a major 30-inch-pipe burst on August 15.

If the road opens by the weekend it will mean it has taken engineers nearly three weeks to make repairs, when the original timetable for completion was just two days.

A spokesman for Thames Water said Greenwich Council's road chiefs had requested a specific type of concrete to be used which takes five days to set.

He said: "We put the concrete in on Saturday and it has been curing (setting) over the course of the week.

"Tomorrow we will begin to set layers of tarmac on top and the road will re-open at 9am on Saturday."

The spokesman said the firm did not originally anticipate the concrete taking five days to set which is why there was a further delay.

He added: "We would like to apologise for the disruption caused to motorists but we need to make sure the road is relayed to the standard the council has asked for."