A BUSY road on the North Yorkshire coast has re-opened almost four days after it had to be closed because of flooding.

The torrential rain on Monday night washed out 600 tonnes of material from an escape road - known as an arrester bed - on the A169 Pickering to Whitby road at Blue Bank, Sleights.

The huge clear-up involved drainage repair work and the installation of specialist replacement material for the arrester bed.

From Monday evening a team of 14 worked to clear the road, with two excavators, two tracked vehicles, two sweeper lorries, one gully cleaner and one jetting wagon working on site.

The arrester bed also had to be refilled with about 600 tonnes of new material which required 15 lorries to transport it from Drax power station near Selby.

The county's executive member for highways, Cllr Don Mackenzie said: “Our team has worked long hours to get the road reopened as soon as possible.

"It was a difficult clear-up operation and we would like to say a big thank you to the team from our contractors Ringway for their hard work and organisation in responding so swiftly to the crisis.

“In addition thank you also to Scarborough Borough Council for helping with the clear up operation and contractor Wilf Noble in Ruswarp for helping as well. Finally we would also like to thank the residents of Sleights and the travelling public for their patience whilst this essential work was carried out.”