Traffic in one part of Merseyside remains hectic after a collapsed sewer caused a major road to close.
Liverpool Road in Southport began crumbling at around 4pm on Thursday - leaving hundreds of motorists trapped in long queues of traffic.
The road remained closed on Friday, with drivers bemoaning huge queues and lengthy commutes.
Across the weekend, yesterday and even today, there continues to be massive delays for those travelling between Ainsdale and Formby.
Southport resident Bruce Hicks called the situation 'appalling', and said the levels of disruption are a 'joke'.
He said: "We are five days into this now, there's no reason - with a bit of common sense - this could have already been sorted."
Sefton Council says filter traffic lights are in place while United Utilities teams work on fixing two sewer pipes on Liverpool Road - however drivers are encouraged to avoid where possible.
A spokesman for the local authority said: "Following extensive investigations, two defective water sewer pipes were found to be causing a carriageway collapse at the junction of the A565 Liverpool Road and Woodvale Road, Ainsdale.
"United Utilities are now working to rectify this as quickly as possible and as soon as the works are complete we will inform people through all our communication channels.
"To assist with traffic flow and congestion at the Coastal Road junction, our traffic signal contractor has provided manual control of the signals at peak times.
"Temporary changes to the signals have also been made to assist. Diversions remain in place via Coastal Road, Shore Road and Kenilworth Road.”
"Where possible we would encourage motorists to find alternative routes and we apologise for any inconvenience caused."
Local blog site Formby Bubble is currently estimating car journeys between Formby and Ainsdale taking around an hour.
United Utilities say they did repair the sewer collapse on Saturday, but their surveillance camera found another area of collapse within the road closure.
Their spokeswoman said: "If all goes well we hope to have the road reinstated and tarmacked ready to be opened again by the end of this week."
