"Starting in Lyneham and ending in Chippenham, however it also starts in Chippenham and ends in Lyneham" 🤣🤣😂 It's this sort of commentary that makes me love this channel.
Look up Galley Hill Road, in Swanscombe, Kent. The chalk spine the road is on collapsed a year ago. the local residents are holding a birthday party for it on friday
Well i never! I've driven/ridden that road loads and somehow never clocked on that it's perched on a spine! Quite impressive from an aerial view, but not really that surprising that it's falling over
@@chrisglover1978 Yikes, near death experience! I bet the entire year it's been closed has been dedicated to Thames Water trying to wriggle out of paying for the rebuild
When the road between Kununurra and Broome in Western Australia was closed by flooding, the detour on paved roads was 6203km - a fairly optimistic 66 hours
"Take this short route, you can make it in one day. Or you take the scenic detour over flat land. It will bring you there in a bit over a week." "I have time, I will take the detour."
@@justafriend5361 This 100 metre stretch of road is closed and here is the detour live as it happens.... He needs to find and video that road/detour that takes an ever smaller of closed section and an ever longer detour route. Auto Shenanigans Worldwide Tour... Coming soon (or not)
The B5605 in Newbridge near Wrexham, would like to point out that it was closed after a landslip in January 2021, and rebuilding work has yet to start.
That was the main southerly route into/out of Wrexham until the very late 1980s, when they built the new Newbridge bridge, so although it’s a pain in the arse now, it would’ve been a catastrophe if it had happened then. I remember having to go through the middle of Chirk and Newbridge, up the side of Cefn, Rhosymedre and Plas Madoc, then through Ruabon and Johnstown to get on to the Wrexham bypass at Rhostyllen. The only clues left are the dual carriageway in Ruabon and a couple of ghost petrol stations.
Don’t hold your breath on the final cost and time to completion. This is a public project so double the cost and double the estimated time and you might be near to reality. Great video.
I wonder if they will pre-install the potholes during the build to blend it in with the rest of the roads in the area or if the plan is to allow natural organic ones to self grow
@@tiepup they still haven't been approved but my buddy at the consulting firm assures me that my re-election fund will the incredibly happy with the findings. Sounds like we might have to order seven.
Civil engineer (Railway) from the continent here. After a certain amount of years in the business you either get cynical, become a total lunatic, or just run out of forks to give. Or you change to the dark side and believe in „everything will be good, on time, and in budget“. Trust me. If we could transfer our sarcasm into budget Japanese Railways would look like a model train club compared to us.
The A3055 west of Ventnor on the Isle of Wight had a landslip and closed the road back in 2012. The A3055 east of Ventnor was closed recently because of a landslip, it's 50/50 if the road will reopen. The A3055 between Shanklin and Chale has a history of landslips and the road being rebuilt or a new route made.
As someone who lives in Chippenham and works in Lyneham, I can testify it is indeed a bit annoying! If I’m really feeling fruity I’ll drive home down Clack Hill, but the residents of Bradenstoke are a bit sick of all the traffic so I keep that for a special treat once or twice a month so as not to annoy them too much……
Loving you series on disappearing roads, how long before the Snake Pass slides down the mountain side, already banned large trucks and now several traffic lights as single traffic in places.
I've not been on that road for a while now, but the last time I went on it I noticed a couple of speed restrictions and one bit near the Ladybower which had dropped so far I felt my car's suspension bottom out as I hit it. Given the Woodhead is now so crap as a route across the Pennines, with so much traffic ruining it, I'm thinking the abandoning of the M67 is looking more and more short-sighted
WOW im from ashton under lyne originaly so 30 min drive from the snake pass ( my family still live there but im in bristol now for 18 yrs) ...ANYHOW i digress lol i neevr knew they had put limitations on it now i remeber as a kid in the 70s and 80s going out with my granadad who was a lorry driver (obv unofficaly as hed of got sacked taking me with him if the firm found out lol) he delivered timber on a flatbed truck with just a normal cab ( no sleeping compartment) so did a lot of deliveries across the snake and wood head passes to places such as bakewell, sheffield ect and also did some pick ups from places such as hull docks! ..I suppose now lorrys would have to use wood head OR go the long way round threough stockport onto the A6 or the m62 up through rochdale and huddersfield!
Derbyshire has numerous roads closed due to "land slips" - mostly minor roads, but it takes them years to sort the jobs out. Lea bottom - closed 3 years, reopened 1 year ago, and almost immediately reclosed due to another collapse in Holloway 2 miles away. Still no signs of any repair in Holloway and another section of Lea Bottom has now dropped about 3 inches but so far it remains open as far as Holloway. Chesterfield Road, Beeley - closed for more than 2 years. Rumour has it that this one is never to re-open. Oker road - closed since the start of the pandemic. No signs yet that it is going to get repaired. There are more, but these 3 are local and so I know the details. Glaciers move faster than DDC Highways.
Wow, when I was posted at RAF Lyneham back in the 00's I used to love driving that road. One time when I was on nightshit guard duty I was given the chance to drive the guard Commander's Lotus Elise along it, that was so much fun!!!
I used to drive it several times a week in a classic Mini when I lived in Wootton Bassett and my girlfriend lived in Chippenham. I could get 70mph between the two sharp corners (going downhill) and not end up in the field. Great road when it existed.
@@lilcharlie3130 The only Army at Lyneham were RCT/RLC (47 AD Sqn & 395 AD Tp) who packed the loads for air-dropping - and they were well over the other side of the base, east of the A3102 (Calne Road). Or do you mean a Group Captain???
@@wessexdruid7598 I meant to the op, as he said he was posted to lyneham and wondered if he knew my dad (as you said there were only about 150 boys at lyneham so he might’ve known him) Cool that you know about 47 though, not many even know they were there.
love a good bit of north wilts coverage as that-er where i hail from. B4069 also has problems near lower seagry with a puddle that doesn't seem to drain leaving the road impassable for lots of cars. Seems like the 4069 might just be cursed.
You'll probably be interested in the A226 near Swanscombe as well, which has suffered a similar fate. Currently no plans in place for what to do about it either, despite it collapsing a year ago.
I used to use this route weekly, a very enjoyable road. The detour is hard work, so mostly for me it is now the M4, with all the idiots fighting along there. Sadly, the rest of the B4069 is deteriorating, and I guess that'll have little maintenance, as the money will be spent on the broken bit. The collapsed section has had signs warning of 'liable to subsidence' all the years I've known it, and has often become very lumpy before being patched up, so not surprising it fell apart. The construction work above it may well have helped it along. Whatever they're building might carry a bit of a risk. Gravity will win.
This bears some similarities to the event at Stenungsund in Sweden in September 2023, where the E6 motorway and a services (including several vehicles of different sizes) were repositioned by a 50-70 meter landslide caused by fill material at a nearby building site.
I've walked on that Mam Tor Road - there was no sophistication in the 'repairs' whatsoever. All they did was keep adding more and more bitumen/stone mix and in places it's over a meter thick... so basically just adding serious amounts of weight onto unstable ground. Designing a new road is the smarter option rather than just adding to the old one using old techniques. Soil pinning, geotextiles, retaining walls and drainage all need careful consideration based on ground investigation results and modelling which will need to look at the rate of shift (so monitor movement over time). There will need to be land purchased no doubt as the footprint will be bigger, draiange connections will need licences and maybe entire new runs, excluding protected spieces may be required and there may well be some legal battle with the developer that possibly caused the original slip? Sadly things aren't instant. However 2 years is more than enough! Personally I'd have just looked at widening and improving the shorter of the diversion routes as the ground there looks more suitable anyway. Presumably we'd be in the daft place then where the developer that may have caused the mess would sue the council for making access to their development worse!
I remember that we looked at what they did to repair the Mam Tor road when I was doing an Open University engineering course. The upshot was they made the situation worse instead of better and the point of teaching us about it was to emphasis how not to do things. It was interesting reading between the lines at the carefully worded circumlocutions in the accompanying text the OU sent us - presumably to avoid any libel actions against them.
Anyone remember a little tsunami that devastated Japan a few years ago? Nuke power plant exploded and a large area had to be sealed off? Roads and railways were smashed to smithereens. Took them a few months, but everything put back as it was.
When I was in Cuba 15 years ago the main road had been washed away in a storm. They chucked some hardcore down by the side and made a temporary road, life continued. In Japan they repair things to a brilliant standard within a few days . ...In the UK we just shut stuff.
Wilts council don’t maintain their roads n drainage at the best of times. 12 draining grates full to the top with silt in Corsham and plenty of road markings missing 😮a couple of miles from lynham. So not a shock they haven’t fixed this. Wish I’d know you were local John I’d have got you lunch. !!!
Leashaw between Crich and Cromford in Derbyshire was closed for 3 years, opened again for a couple of months, and now its closed for another 2 years apparently. Landslip
A bit of sidetracking: In Sweden we have an upgraded version of that landslide at 58°03'36.5"N 11°52'58.5"E outside Stenungsund where a human-induced landslide has cut the motorway E6. The damage is not visible in Google Maps though, but there are photos from news sites around. It happened in September 2023, so it's pretty recent and quite disrupting for the traffic. If you for some reason happen to think about visiting the Saab museum in the future, don't miss out the piece of road that starts at 58°11'14.28"N 11°56'38.17"E.
I was going to mention that, especially with Jon questioning whether works in the area actually caused the problem. Though I am guessing the geology in Wiltshire did not require explosives!
Ha! you think two years is a long time - go to the Isle of Wight and check out the Undercliff road from Ventnor to Niton - The A3055 Undercliff Drive previously linked Ventor and Niton but it has been closed since February 2014. Eight houses were evacuated and two remained cut off until a temporary access route was created in 2016. And now since the A3055 Leeson Road suffered a landslip in 2023 there are now only two roads serving the town of Ventnor. Now that will make a good story to cover...
Thanks for rapid uploads especially in the middle of the week, that helps putting things into perspective with the crazy bad road conditions and closures here in Teutonia (in the past the " small disagreeing country") 🚗🚧👷😳😖😉😁😂🤣️
I never knew why this road got closed when I was in lyneham. Thousands of people learned to drive there, and along that stretch of road there is a very notorious corner dubbed "crafty corner" thanks to many new drivers crashing along it 😂
Piling and a rafted road usually suffices, alas you are dealing with local government engineers. So it will probably be really expensive and not solve the problem. I have heard it said many times in several countries, no respectable engineer will take a job in local government. They are either incompetent or have taken employment for the leisurely workload and pension benefits.
We had a road like that locally between Brighouse and Elland - closed for nearly two years and then when it finally opened again they decided do further road works on the bits that hadn't been affected by the landslip....
Should look at the B5605 at Newbridge, its been closed since January 2021 due to a landslide from a storm, apparently its still not going to be fixed for another year or more!
Have a look at the A59 at Blubberhouses, near Harrogate. After several closures for repair it was decided to build a new section on a revised alignment. However while that was being built the original road, which was Only resurfaced last year has now had to be closed due to wet weather earlier in the year. The diversion of this busy road is massive and there’s currently no date for the original road reopening. The new route isn’t due to open until late 2025
Mam Tor road near Castleton. I remember riding up it on my motorbike the weekend before it collapsed. There were a couple of minor roadworks with traffic lights...then the whole thing collapsed midweek. And that was it, they gave up in the end...
Why don't they put the Army to some use & call it a training exercises, there is plenty of equipment & troops in Wiltshire, and they would be defending the country, from nature in this instance.
Plus if your country military is anything like the US military they are probably sitting around doing absolutely nothing useful or playing hazing games because NCOs and Staffncos got bored
most of these pictures don't look like the place in question, i used to drive it every night at work and could feel the road profile changing as it started to subside . however since 2022 it has been shut. westbound divert is narrow, oneway, and def not suitable for anything much bigger tham 7.5 ton, eastbound a little longer but prob not good for hgv. best go m4 or divert through lyneham and calne. a bridge is a bloody stupid idea , the road ran the edge of a hillside not across a valley
When I started watching this, I immediately thought of the Mam Tor road and was going to mention it, so I'm glad you did that for me. In that case, though, I think it was more to do with the fact the Mam Tor and surrounding area is mostly slate bed and its reputation for slipping has earned it the name "Shivering Mountain". The only upside to leaving it alone is the now rather handy parking area the existing stub of road makes for the Blue John mine. The big downside being that Winnats Pass is now less of a pleasant area thanks to all the traffic going from Sparrowpit to Hope and Castleton. And just as importantly, the traffic also going from Hope or Castleton to Sparrowpit. I'm also wondering just how long it'll be before the Snake Pass succumbs to the same fate. There's a section as you drop out of the peaks towards the Ladybower reservoir which has been repaired so many times, I expect the lowest layer of tarmac is now pressing against the earth's core. I've not used it in a fair while, but I used to use it a lot in the late 80s and early 90s, back when lorries could still use it, and that section felt like a ruddy great step. Also, interesting fact: Blue John gets its name from the stone that is mined there. The French loved it and bought a lot of it. It didn't have a name, so the French used to refer to it as "Le caillou bleu jaune", or "the blue and yellow rock". The local Derbyshire residents, not French speakers, heard "Bleu Jaune" and thought they were saying "Blue John"
That's not a closure check out the B5605 in Newbridge, in Wrexham county borough,it was closed in January 2021 after a large part of the road collapsed down an embankment during Storm Christoph.
Hi Jon, Hope your well, a road subsided in the county of Wrexham, at Newbridge B5606 connecting the villages of Newbridge and Pentre and joining up to the A5 for Llangollen, Chirk , Oswestry and the A483 for Wrexham. In 2021 heavy rain flowing down the River Dee had washed away the embankment supporting the bridge and washed away half of the road. Up until 2021 the B5606 was a diversion route for the A483 but now if there is a diversion traffic from Oswestry heading for Wrexham have to do a 12 mile diversion down the A5 to Llangollen and on to the A539 for Ruabon to rejoin the A483 for Wrexham. Don't you just hate long diversion routes. Take care
It seems the problem is caused by the town itself. They made a flat area, which is nice except there is little drainage for the old stream (lilly brook) This combined with loose subsoil on the lee side of the hill caused a buildup of water adjacent to the new construction. Possibly the area was graded puncturing the south side subsoil. It drained out and eventually failed. The engineers solution for drainage is quite appropriate. Removal of excess road material is necessary to relieve stress in that area. If possible additional supports along the new road with drainage down to bedrock is indicated. (if there is any in a reasonable depth) Rerouting the road on the other side of the new construction. might be longer lasting. A careful engineering analysis is needed for this.
While I'm sure modern technology could fix it, modern cars also make less work of Winnats Pass than older vehicles so there is less incentive to do anything about it. There is even a regular bus up Winnats on a Sunday which also takes in the delights of Snake Pass. Derbyshire seem pretty keen on closing roads though, New Road in Eyam has been 'temporarily' closed for years, they just keep renewing the road closure order rather than formally shutting it - it will never reopen either. Hell Bank near Chatsworth collapsed a few years back and we suspect it will have a similar fate. Local geology doesn't help, but the main issue seems to be that DCC don't want to (or can't) invest as much in local roads as is needed.
I've driven along that road, I missed junction 16 and had to go all the way to junction 17 and come back along the B4069 to get to RAF Lyneham. Thankfully my error wasn't picked up by MT after I added extra miles to the odometer.
That road was moving for a long time before it collapsed, it was like driving a rollercoaster. Sadly preventative maintenance never happens around here. That said Bath and North East Somerset roads have potholes of biblical proportions.
I don't think anything can fix 'flowing land' long term - other than colossal span bridges as you say. They could convert it to a very nice cycle track and wildlife corridor and future slip fixes would be as cheap as chips. Hardly worth getting in a motor for under 10 miles, especially if they're 'nice miles'.
The problem with infrastructure in the UK there are no dedicated department or team - so everytime they go to build something local government rely on consultants to get anything done out of the ordinary. They get some snotty nosed consultant freshout and his boss to take their time, do all the box ticking and then get a lazy-arsed building to build it overcost and overtime. Britain needs department of infratructure and it's team of experienced workmen and managers to get things done.
This isn’t far from me. I visited it a couple of months ago. I can’t believe they are going to be anywhere close to opening it by the first half of 2025. You know how slow things go. Got to be at least 2 or 3 years from now. Maybe ultimately plans will stop if indeed it’s deemed too costly and not guaranteed to last. Therefore the current division will be permanent. I wonder how extra much the locals have spent on petrol or diesel (or electric) to keep going round the division?
I wonder why it was closed for 2 years because of the constant flooding. I bet it still does get flooded and the government should do something about roads from getting flooded and seeing roads decaying.
More news has just been released about a permanent road closure on the b3135 through Cheddar gorge on Sundays once a month. I really think it would make an excellent video snd I for one would love to hear all your thoughts on it thank you
The solution is for the B4069 road to be moved away from the floodplains or to have a new bypass and to be renumbered as the B4069 and the existing B4069 to be submerged and to be never seen again.
Fixing roads doesn’t line the pocket of your mates firms or firms you have investments in….. that’s all government officials and councils care about. It’s a massive boys club
So the cost is "take the number you first thought of, double it and add 10%". That makes around £13.2M. This is from a former project manager who knows how s***e estimators are.😊
Drove this the day they closed it going to my parents, i made it going down the hill and found it shut on my way back. Certainly made it interesting when it resembled a quarter pipe with one lane closed... E: it's also worth noting that the primary cause for this was that the bank above was being built up by whoever is developing the site above the road, you can see in the drone shots exactly where the slip originated. If they really want to stabilise this site they need to sink piles above and below the road to stop this from happening again. IMO the land owner and developer should be 100% liable for the costs here as they appear to have completely failed to have adequate surveys done to the site before they commenced work and slip became very obvious for weeks before the road finally shut.
So you're saying you're the last one to have used the road before it mysteriously "broke"...? Have you got any civil liability insurance in place? Where there's blame, there's a claim!
They are all broke due to government cuts so no. Only way the money will arrive is when Labour kick out the Tories. Just like when the democrats remove your gop lot
"Starting in Lyneham and ending in Chippenham, however it also starts in Chippenham and ends in Lyneham" 🤣🤣😂 It's this sort of commentary that makes me love this channel.
Look up Galley Hill Road, in Swanscombe, Kent. The chalk spine the road is on collapsed a year ago. the local residents are holding a birthday party for it on friday
Literally came to say this exact thing. Worth a look. I think the companies the road collapsed onto are still waiting for a resolve.
Well i never! I've driven/ridden that road loads and somehow never clocked on that it's perched on a spine! Quite impressive from an aerial view, but not really that surprising that it's falling over
@@_TwoBobBit I never realised either. I drove down there a couple of hours before it collapsed. There was water bubbling out of the road
@@chrisglover1978 Yikes, near death experience! I bet the entire year it's been closed has been dedicated to Thames Water trying to wriggle out of paying for the rebuild
@@_TwoBobBit yes!
When the road between Kununurra and Broome in Western Australia was closed by flooding, the detour on paved roads was 6203km - a fairly optimistic 66 hours
Australia 🦘 😂
"Take this short route, you can make it in one day.
Or you take the scenic detour over flat land. It will bring you there in a bit over a week."
"I have time, I will take the detour."
Jon needs to get down there and make a video on it!
@@justafriend5361 This 100 metre stretch of road is closed and here is the detour live as it happens....
He needs to find and video that road/detour that takes an ever smaller of closed section and an ever longer detour route.
Auto Shenanigans Worldwide Tour... Coming soon (or not)
@@samholdsworth420yes it’s on a map if you know how to use it..👋
The B5605 in Newbridge near Wrexham, would like to point out that it was closed after a landslip in January 2021, and rebuilding work has yet to start.
Or Queen's Road in Brymbo...
Newbridge is a right pain at the moment, its a pain for the A483 diversion route and divert through Llangollen must put 12 miles on the journey
@@petereverett1455 Queens Road is now a footpath it just up the road from me in Pentre Broughton
That was the main southerly route into/out of Wrexham until the very late 1980s, when they built the new Newbridge bridge, so although it’s a pain in the arse now, it would’ve been a catastrophe if it had happened then. I remember having to go through the middle of Chirk and Newbridge, up the side of Cefn, Rhosymedre and Plas Madoc, then through Ruabon and Johnstown to get on to the Wrexham bypass at Rhostyllen. The only clues left are the dual carriageway in Ruabon and a couple of ghost petrol stations.
@shaun30-3-mg9zs definitely is! And then people get stuck when they try and go via Pontycysyllte.
Don’t hold your breath on the final cost and time to completion. This is a public project so double the cost and double the estimated time and you might be near to reality. Great video.
I wonder if they will pre-install the potholes during the build to blend it in with the rest of the roads in the area or if the plan is to allow natural organic ones to self grow
yet the chinese would have the road rebuilt within a week with concrete subase material and concrete pilings on the high side to reduce slippage
@@clintonepps3666
Tofu Dreg concrete
I like how through your videos it's incredibly clear that the more well informed you become about how all of this works the more cynical you become.
How many feasibility studies did you do to come up with that opinion?
@@tiepup they still haven't been approved but my buddy at the consulting firm assures me that my re-election fund will the incredibly happy with the findings. Sounds like we might have to order seven.
Civil engineer (Railway) from the continent here. After a certain amount of years in the business you either get cynical, become a total lunatic, or just run out of forks to give. Or you change to the dark side and believe in „everything will be good, on time, and in budget“.
Trust me. If we could transfer our sarcasm into budget Japanese Railways would look like a model train club compared to us.
@@tiepupWell before the second minor disagreement.
If you watch JonLevi and 'My Lunch Break' to see what was achieved hundreds of years ago... our modern lack of ability is even more puzzling!
The A3055 west of Ventnor on the Isle of Wight had a landslip and closed the road back in 2012.
The A3055 east of Ventnor was closed recently because of a landslip, it's 50/50 if the road will reopen.
The A3055 between Shanklin and Chale has a history of landslips and the road being rebuilt or a new route made.
As someone who lives in Chippenham and works in Lyneham, I can testify it is indeed a bit annoying! If I’m really feeling fruity I’ll drive home down Clack Hill, but the residents of Bradenstoke are a bit sick of all the traffic so I keep that for a special treat once or twice a month so as not to annoy them too much……
Loving you series on disappearing roads, how long before the Snake Pass slides down the mountain side, already banned large trucks and now several traffic lights as single traffic in places.
Haha I was just about to say about that slip near LadyBower.
Is that in Derbyshire?
I've not been on that road for a while now, but the last time I went on it I noticed a couple of speed restrictions and one bit near the Ladybower which had dropped so far I felt my car's suspension bottom out as I hit it. Given the Woodhead is now so crap as a route across the Pennines, with so much traffic ruining it, I'm thinking the abandoning of the M67 is looking more and more short-sighted
WOW im from ashton under lyne originaly so 30 min drive from the snake pass ( my family still live there but im in bristol now for 18 yrs) ...ANYHOW i digress lol i neevr knew they had put limitations on it now i remeber as a kid in the 70s and 80s going out with my granadad who was a lorry driver (obv unofficaly as hed of got sacked taking me with him if the firm found out lol) he delivered timber on a flatbed truck with just a normal cab ( no sleeping compartment) so did a lot of deliveries across the snake and wood head passes to places such as bakewell, sheffield ect and also did some pick ups from places such as hull docks! ..I suppose now lorrys would have to use wood head OR go the long way round threough stockport onto the A6 or the m62 up through rochdale and huddersfield!
Derbyshire has numerous roads closed due to "land slips" - mostly minor roads, but it takes them years to sort the jobs out.
Lea bottom - closed 3 years, reopened 1 year ago, and almost immediately reclosed due to another collapse in Holloway 2 miles away. Still no signs of any repair in Holloway and another section of Lea Bottom has now dropped about 3 inches but so far it remains open as far as Holloway.
Chesterfield Road, Beeley - closed for more than 2 years. Rumour has it that this one is never to re-open.
Oker road - closed since the start of the pandemic. No signs yet that it is going to get repaired.
There are more, but these 3 are local and so I know the details.
Glaciers move faster than DDC Highways.
The problem with feasibility studies is they cost so much the actual remediation works become hamstrung.
Wow, when I was posted at RAF Lyneham back in the 00's I used to love driving that road. One time when I was on nightshit guard duty I was given the chance to drive the guard Commander's Lotus Elise along it, that was so much fun!!!
I used to drive it several times a week in a classic Mini when I lived in Wootton Bassett and my girlfriend lived in Chippenham. I could get 70mph between the two sharp corners (going downhill) and not end up in the field. Great road when it existed.
I used to work for GPO Telephones AKA BT, deeply involved with Gulf War 1.phone wise, Do you remember a former CO Grp. Cpt Alastair Steadman?
Army or RAF?
@@lilcharlie3130 The only Army at Lyneham were RCT/RLC (47 AD Sqn & 395 AD Tp) who packed the loads for air-dropping - and they were well over the other side of the base, east of the A3102 (Calne Road). Or do you mean a Group Captain???
@@wessexdruid7598 I meant to the op, as he said he was posted to lyneham and wondered if he knew my dad (as you said there were only about 150 boys at lyneham so he might’ve known him)
Cool that you know about 47 though, not many even know they were there.
love a good bit of north wilts coverage as that-er where i hail from. B4069 also has problems near lower seagry with a puddle that doesn't seem to drain leaving the road impassable for lots of cars. Seems like the 4069 might just be cursed.
You'll probably be interested in the A226 near Swanscombe as well, which has suffered a similar fate. Currently no plans in place for what to do about it either, despite it collapsing a year ago.
I used to use this route weekly, a very enjoyable road. The detour is hard work, so mostly for me it is now the M4, with all the idiots fighting along there. Sadly, the rest of the B4069 is deteriorating, and I guess that'll have little maintenance, as the money will be spent on the broken bit. The collapsed section has had signs warning of 'liable to subsidence' all the years I've known it, and has often become very lumpy before being patched up, so not surprising it fell apart. The construction work above it may well have helped it along. Whatever they're building might carry a bit of a risk. Gravity will win.
This bears some similarities to the event at Stenungsund in Sweden in September 2023, where the E6 motorway and a services (including several vehicles of different sizes) were repositioned by a 50-70 meter landslide caused by fill material at a nearby building site.
I've walked on that Mam Tor Road - there was no sophistication in the 'repairs' whatsoever. All they did was keep adding more and more bitumen/stone mix and in places it's over a meter thick... so basically just adding serious amounts of weight onto unstable ground.
Designing a new road is the smarter option rather than just adding to the old one using old techniques. Soil pinning, geotextiles, retaining walls and drainage all need careful consideration based on ground investigation results and modelling which will need to look at the rate of shift (so monitor movement over time). There will need to be land purchased no doubt as the footprint will be bigger, draiange connections will need licences and maybe entire new runs, excluding protected spieces may be required and there may well be some legal battle with the developer that possibly caused the original slip? Sadly things aren't instant. However 2 years is more than enough!
Personally I'd have just looked at widening and improving the shorter of the diversion routes as the ground there looks more suitable anyway. Presumably we'd be in the daft place then where the developer that may have caused the mess would sue the council for making access to their development worse!
I remember that we looked at what they did to repair the Mam Tor road when I was doing an Open University engineering course. The upshot was they made the situation worse instead of better and the point of teaching us about it was to emphasis how not to do things. It was interesting reading between the lines at the carefully worded circumlocutions in the accompanying text the OU sent us - presumably to avoid any libel actions against them.
Anyone remember a little tsunami that devastated Japan a few years ago? Nuke power plant exploded and a large area had to be sealed off?
Roads and railways were smashed to smithereens. Took them a few months, but everything put back as it was.
Amazing what can be done with unlimited money.
When I was in Cuba 15 years ago the main road had been washed away in a storm. They chucked some hardcore down by the side and made a temporary road, life continued. In Japan they repair things to a brilliant standard within a few days . ...In the UK we just shut stuff.
Take that price and either multiply it by 4 and double the expected time window to completion... its how these things go.
Wilts council don’t maintain their roads n drainage at the best of times. 12 draining grates full to the top with silt in Corsham and plenty of road markings missing 😮a couple of miles from lynham. So not a shock they haven’t fixed this. Wish I’d know you were local John I’d have got you lunch. !!!
I would point out that the Mam Tor road was built on top of a 4000 year old landslide in the first place...
Leashaw between Crich and Cromford in Derbyshire was closed for 3 years, opened again for a couple of months, and now its closed for another 2 years apparently. Landslip
Rest and Be Thankful!
A bit of sidetracking:
In Sweden we have an upgraded version of that landslide at 58°03'36.5"N 11°52'58.5"E outside Stenungsund where a human-induced landslide has cut the motorway E6. The damage is not visible in Google Maps though, but there are photos from news sites around. It happened in September 2023, so it's pretty recent and quite disrupting for the traffic.
If you for some reason happen to think about visiting the Saab museum in the future, don't miss out the piece of road that starts at 58°11'14.28"N 11°56'38.17"E.
I was going to mention that, especially with Jon questioning whether works in the area actually caused the problem. Though I am guessing the geology in Wiltshire did not require explosives!
Mate you have a great Chanel very informative and content I have watched you for the last few months 100% for you
Ha! you think two years is a long time - go to the Isle of Wight and check out the Undercliff road from Ventnor to Niton - The A3055 Undercliff Drive previously linked Ventor and Niton but it has been closed since February 2014. Eight houses were evacuated and two remained cut off until a temporary access route was created in 2016. And now since the A3055 Leeson Road suffered a landslip in 2023 there are now only two roads serving the town of Ventnor. Now that will make a good story to cover...
Thanks for rapid uploads especially in the middle of the week, that helps putting things into perspective with the crazy bad road conditions and closures here in Teutonia (in the past the " small disagreeing country") 🚗🚧👷😳😖😉😁😂🤣️
Wyndford road near cumbernauld has been shut to through traffic for over 10 years now due to it subsiding into an old mine
Was gonna mention about the road at Mam Tor, wondered if you'd been there, but no need to now.
Yea... welcome to 'Fix nothing' Wiltshire. Never lived anywhere like this where they let the place just fall apart. Can't wait to move away
Try Surrey. Roads left to decay to the point of being downright bloody dangerous.
Fix nothing and charge you a fortune to live here too.
I never knew why this road got closed when I was in lyneham. Thousands of people learned to drive there, and along that stretch of road there is a very notorious corner dubbed "crafty corner" thanks to many new drivers crashing along it 😂
Piling and a rafted road usually suffices, alas you are dealing with local government engineers. So it will probably be really expensive and not solve the problem. I have heard it said many times in several countries, no respectable engineer will take a job in local government. They are either incompetent or have taken employment for the leisurely workload and pension benefits.
We had a road like that locally between Brighouse and Elland - closed for nearly two years and then when it finally opened again they decided do further road works on the bits that hadn't been affected by the landslip....
That construction site looks like it's about to join the road any minute 😂
Same as the Bervie Braes in Stonehaven (coastal Tourist Rte on google maps)
That must be closed to traffic at least 20 years. I remember it was one way (downwards) in 1989, but can't be arsed googling when the landslip was....
@@dough740 It's 2 way until half way down then one way downhill only to teh bottom.
Looks like fun for 4x4 fans
Same craziness on Jenolan Caved Road in NSW, with a stop-go process, except the workers are incompetent, and send cars towards each other!
There’s been a road closed due to a washed out bridge for three years near st Asaph, n wales😢
Should look at the B5605 at Newbridge, its been closed since January 2021 due to a landslide from a storm, apparently its still not going to be fixed for another year or more!
Cleeve hill in Watchet, Somerset has been closed for years and looks like it might be permanent
From your pictures it looks like 4x4 vehicles have already found a short way round the break seeing the "tramlines"round the break. 😉
Have a look at the A59 at Blubberhouses, near Harrogate. After several closures for repair it was decided to build a new section on a revised alignment. However while that was being built the original road, which was Only resurfaced last year has now had to be closed due to wet weather earlier in the year. The diversion of this busy road is massive and there’s currently no date for the original road reopening. The new route isn’t due to open until late 2025
Mam Tor road near Castleton. I remember riding up it on my motorbike the weekend before it collapsed. There were a couple of minor roadworks with traffic lights...then the whole thing collapsed midweek. And that was it, they gave up in the end...
I live near here, the local kids took up skateboarding on the ruined road. The council hate it. The council hate fun.
wow, i used to work in Lyneham and always had to take that detour but never knew why
Nice video will be interesting to see the 2025 video on this road
Looks like quite a few people use the 'closed road' anyway, quite some tracks between the two good parts of the road.
I used to live near Chippenham. I've probably travelled on that road.
Why don't they put the Army to some use & call it a training exercises, there is plenty of equipment & troops in Wiltshire, and they would be defending the country, from nature in this instance.
Plus if your country military is anything like the US military they are probably sitting around doing absolutely nothing useful or playing hazing games because NCOs and Staffncos got bored
most of these pictures don't look like the place in question, i used to drive it every night at work and could feel the road profile changing as it started to subside . however since 2022 it has been shut. westbound divert is narrow, oneway, and def not suitable for anything much bigger tham 7.5 ton, eastbound a little longer but prob not good for hgv. best go m4 or divert through lyneham and calne. a bridge is a bloody stupid idea , the road ran the edge of a hillside not across a valley
When I started watching this, I immediately thought of the Mam Tor road and was going to mention it, so I'm glad you did that for me. In that case, though, I think it was more to do with the fact the Mam Tor and surrounding area is mostly slate bed and its reputation for slipping has earned it the name "Shivering Mountain". The only upside to leaving it alone is the now rather handy parking area the existing stub of road makes for the Blue John mine. The big downside being that Winnats Pass is now less of a pleasant area thanks to all the traffic going from Sparrowpit to Hope and Castleton. And just as importantly, the traffic also going from Hope or Castleton to Sparrowpit.
I'm also wondering just how long it'll be before the Snake Pass succumbs to the same fate. There's a section as you drop out of the peaks towards the Ladybower reservoir which has been repaired so many times, I expect the lowest layer of tarmac is now pressing against the earth's core. I've not used it in a fair while, but I used to use it a lot in the late 80s and early 90s, back when lorries could still use it, and that section felt like a ruddy great step.
Also, interesting fact: Blue John gets its name from the stone that is mined there. The French loved it and bought a lot of it. It didn't have a name, so the French used to refer to it as "Le caillou bleu jaune", or "the blue and yellow rock". The local Derbyshire residents, not French speakers, heard "Bleu Jaune" and thought they were saying "Blue John"
I love the sass in these videos.
Thank you… now I know why I can’t go that way anymore
That's not a closure check out the B5605 in Newbridge, in Wrexham county borough,it was closed in January 2021 after a large part of the road collapsed down an embankment during Storm Christoph.
There is the closed road between Watchet and Blue Anchor in Somerset. Which has been closed for over a year now without a planned replacement.
B3191 road is never going to be reopened, that was decided in 2023 😂
Actually, it will be open now for Easter for pedestrians and cyclists only, however vehicles will never use it again up and over Cleeve Hill.
Hi Jon, Hope your well, a road subsided in the county of Wrexham, at Newbridge B5606 connecting the villages of Newbridge and Pentre and joining up to the A5 for Llangollen, Chirk , Oswestry and the A483 for Wrexham. In 2021 heavy rain flowing down the River Dee had washed away the embankment supporting the bridge and washed away half of the road. Up until 2021 the B5606 was a diversion route for the A483 but now if there is a diversion traffic from Oswestry heading for Wrexham have to do a 12 mile diversion down the A5 to Llangollen and on to the A539 for Ruabon to rejoin the A483 for Wrexham. Don't you just hate long diversion routes. Take care
my mistake not the B5606 but the B5605
No mention of RAF Lyneham 😢 as I recall, home of the Hercules in the UK……..
Used to be before they moved them all to Brize.
@@paulsengupta971 can’t believe they cleared out 2011/12 😳
If the ground has moved they’ll have to wait for it to settle. However, they don’t have any money so good luck
It seems the problem is caused by the town itself. They made a flat area, which is nice except there is little drainage for the old stream (lilly brook) This combined with loose subsoil on the lee side of the hill caused a buildup of water adjacent to the new construction. Possibly the area was graded puncturing the south side subsoil. It drained out and eventually failed. The engineers solution for drainage is quite appropriate. Removal of excess road material is necessary to relieve stress in that area. If possible additional supports along the new road with drainage down to bedrock is indicated. (if there is any in a reasonable depth)
Rerouting the road on the other side of the new construction. might be longer lasting. A careful engineering analysis is needed for this.
Blimey, we had a school trip 'walk' involving Mam Tor Road back in 1983. They STILL haven't fixed it!
They never will fix it. The entire area is slate rock and Mam Tor is known locally as "Shivering Mountain" as it has regular landslides
While I'm sure modern technology could fix it, modern cars also make less work of Winnats Pass than older vehicles so there is less incentive to do anything about it. There is even a regular bus up Winnats on a Sunday which also takes in the delights of Snake Pass.
Derbyshire seem pretty keen on closing roads though, New Road in Eyam has been 'temporarily' closed for years, they just keep renewing the road closure order rather than formally shutting it - it will never reopen either. Hell Bank near Chatsworth collapsed a few years back and we suspect it will have a similar fate. Local geology doesn't help, but the main issue seems to be that DCC don't want to (or can't) invest as much in local roads as is needed.
I've driven along that road, I missed junction 16 and had to go all the way to junction 17 and come back along the B4069 to get to RAF Lyneham. Thankfully my error wasn't picked up by MT after I added extra miles to the odometer.
Have a look at A59 between Harrogate and Skipton
Look up grindleford to eyam road in Derbyshire that's been shut for years due to landslides
That road was moving for a long time before it collapsed, it was like driving a rollercoaster. Sadly preventative maintenance never happens around here. That said Bath and North East Somerset roads have potholes of biblical proportions.
0:25 The custom of dry British humor (sorry, humour...) with flat delivery is just the absolute apex of comedy 🤣
I don't think anything can fix 'flowing land' long term - other than colossal span bridges as you say. They could convert it to a very nice cycle track and wildlife corridor and future slip fixes would be as cheap as chips. Hardly worth getting in a motor for under 10 miles, especially if they're 'nice miles'.
there's always a way to get the job done right the first time but the council doesn't want to spend the money. instead they waste 6x more on failures.
There’s always the 4x4 bypass
They have to keep putting up the signs as people still refuse to except that the road is FUBAR!
The problem with infrastructure in the UK there are no dedicated department or team - so everytime they go to build something local government rely on consultants to get anything done out of the ordinary. They get some snotty nosed consultant freshout and his boss to take their time, do all the box ticking and then get a lazy-arsed building to build it overcost and overtime.
Britain needs department of infratructure and it's team of experienced workmen and managers to get things done.
This isn’t far from me. I visited it a couple of months ago.
I can’t believe they are going to be anywhere close to opening it by the first half of 2025. You know how slow things go.
Got to be at least 2 or 3 years from now.
Maybe ultimately plans will stop if indeed it’s deemed too costly and not guaranteed to last. Therefore the current division will be permanent.
I wonder how extra much the locals have spent on petrol or diesel (or electric) to keep going round the division?
I like this video so I’ve press the button specifically for that 👉🏻
If you really like it, press it twice! 👍👍
Given it's Wiltshire Council work may be started by 2035 if we're lucky.
They could have made a start in 2022 by planting some fast- rooting trees ( that would already be starting to stabilise the land)..
I wonder why it was closed for 2 years because of the constant flooding. I bet it still does get flooded and the government should do something about roads from getting flooded and seeing roads decaying.
Lets be honest though, it seems like that road is still open judging by the car trails that connects the two ends of the broken bit.
Can you make a video and prove the pipe in the background is level.
What if they built a new road and curved it into the land slide, that way every time the land moved the road would only continue to straighten.
More news has just been released about a permanent road closure on the b3135 through Cheddar gorge on Sundays once a month. I really think it would make an excellent video snd I for one would love to hear all your thoughts on it thank you
Yeah good shout mate
The solution is for the B4069 road to be moved away from the floodplains or to have a new bypass and to be renumbered as the B4069 and the existing B4069 to be submerged and to be never seen again.
We are so good with infrastructure aren’t we? 🤦♂️
Fixing roads doesn’t line the pocket of your mates firms or firms you have investments in….. that’s all government officials and councils care about. It’s a massive boys club
Wonder what was being demolished.
If the ground is regluraly unstable then it might be more logical to widen the Clack Hill road. But when were councils ever logical? 😁
It cost 5 million pound to draw a few lines and add a few planters to my local highstreet that is also closed so good luck..
Whats the end song? It sounds a lot like the german erika song as in it sounds really good and cool
So the cost is "take the number you first thought of, double it and add 10%". That makes around £13.2M. This is from a former project manager who knows how s***e estimators are.😊
Comes to my patch and doesn't even pop in for bacon
I think that the ending song has some trickery in it... But I do not know what...
I guess someone spilled their extra-hot madras on the road that night and, well, nature had a mudslide... :P
Hello again. 👍
Drove this the day they closed it going to my parents, i made it going down the hill and found it shut on my way back.
Certainly made it interesting when it resembled a quarter pipe with one lane closed...
E: it's also worth noting that the primary cause for this was that the bank above was being built up by whoever is developing the site above the road, you can see in the drone shots exactly where the slip originated.
If they really want to stabilise this site they need to sink piles above and below the road to stop this from happening again.
IMO the land owner and developer should be 100% liable for the costs here as they appear to have completely failed to have adequate surveys done to the site before they commenced work and slip became very obvious for weeks before the road finally shut.
So you're saying you're the last one to have used the road before it mysteriously "broke"...? Have you got any civil liability insurance in place? Where there's blame, there's a claim!
100%
Being an American, I wonder if these Councils are the least bit embarrassed when Jon calls them out?
They probably don't watch his channel, thereby removing the problem for themselves. 🙃
They are all broke due to government cuts so no. Only way the money will arrive is when Labour kick out the Tories. Just like when the democrats remove your gop lot
Wiltshire Council definitely wouldn’t be embarrassed.
Wouldn't it have been better to check the feasibility of the shorter one way road and upgrade the road to becoming something more akin to a B-road?
I think they did that study when they originally built a road around the slope of the hill so it rises gradually rather rather than straight up it!
Wouldn't another solution be to widen the single track road to two lanes?
Shirley the main delay is getting the plans the Alpha Centauri. *tut* Typical.
Let’s all go back to Lyneham before the pongos got it and ruined everything.
A year. A whole year for something like 100 metres of road. Chinese would have this done in a day.
I bet it's going to cost £10 million to fix! What does everyone else bet?
I thought I had pot holes