Wiltshire Council’s attempts to repair the road damaged by a landslip won’t begin until 2024.
The plans for a retaining wall had been seen as the first stage of the repairs to the B4069 and had originally been planned to commence in the autumn of this year, however, the local authority have now confirmed that work will not start until spring 2024 at the very earliest.
The road has been closed since mid February when subisence cused the road surface to break and crack least vast fault lines throughout the surface, effectively making it unsafe to traffic.
Wiltshire council’s preferred solution of the three suggested was to install a piled retaining wall on the site, which first showed signs of significant movement in 2020.
Since the council were forced to close the route amid safety concerns and the road being deemed unpassable, Atkins has been working with the local authority to formulate a solution to the challenge and carrying out initial ground surveys.
The favoured solution will involve a include “a contiguous board pile retaining wall on the down slope side of the carriageway” which could be up to 15m deep at points and a series of counterfront drains immediately above the road to allow for excess water run off.
Speaking to New Civil Engineer, Atkins associate geotechnical engineer Chris Cox explained,
“They both improve drainage in the slope itself as well as improving the strength of the ground. Effectively, it's a dig and replace but on a more localised scale.
“They're basically gravel drains excavated into the slope keying into the material below the existing shear surface.”
Explaining the timeline Wiltshire Council major highways project engineer Steve Wilson stated it is “a very complex scheme” with “an intense and difficult design process.”
Wilson said: “We believe that we'll be able to move forward to procurement towards the end of this year.
“There'll be a lot of different engineering activities happening within a relatively small site and therefore ensuring we have the correct contractor for these works will be a key factor.
“We believe that we'll be able to move forward into construction in spring of 2024.”
In parallel with the design process, the council will be attempting to develop a funding stream for the works which includes legal and land access agreements.
Wilson said: “We believe that we'll be able to move forward to procurement towards the end of this year.
“There'll be a lot of different engineering activities happening within a relatively small site and therefore ensuring we have the correct contractor for these works will be a key factor.
“We believe that we'll be able to move forward into construction in spring of 2024.”
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