Repairs to a 17-km stretch of the Thanet Way are expected to cost £6m and other road projects will have to be put on hold to pay for them, say county road chiefs.

Kent County Council says the £6m price tag will pay for resurfacing expected to last a few years because it cannot afford the estimated £50m to completely rebuild the road, which is used by 40,000 motorists a day.

Cllr Matthew Balfour, Kent County Council’s cabinet member for transport, said the authority would need to delay other road improvement schemes to make the A299 near Whitstable and Herne Bay safe.

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“The solution is to reform the road but candidly we cannot afford the £50m if we were to do it absolutely properly.

"But we are doing a resurfacing job which will sort the problem for a period of years and is the best solution rather than spend an enormous amount of money on it.

"If the police raise concerns about safety, we have to do something about it,” he said.

He denied the council had failed to identify the potential problem early enough.

“We have had it in our sights and we were planning to do something about it. But push came to shove and we are doing something about it now.”

On the costs, he said KCC had already identified £1.5m from other schemes that were not “safety critical” and expected to raise the rest from contingencies.

“It will mean that other capital projects will be delayed because we won’t be able to afford them until we have recouped the money,” he said.

A 50mph speed limit has been introduced and will have to remain in place until the work - expected to last between 12 and 18 months - is completed.

Problems have arisen because the road is laid on clay subsoil which expands and contracts depending on how much rain there has been.

If it rains very hard, the drainage cannot cope and the water collects in the uneven surface, leading to a risk that drivers are likely to aquaplane if they go too fast.

Repairs will be suspended over Christmas and the New Year.