Britain’s ”wonkiest road” is set to reopen this Spring – three years after it was shut to carry out a whopping £5million of repairs.
Around 100 metres of the B4069 near Lyneham, Wiltshire, has been shut since February 2022 – when Storm Eunice caused a major landslip. The damage was so significant it looked like the area had been “hit by an earthquake” – with even skaters using it as a makeshift skatepark.
The road, which was used by an estimated 5,000 vehicles a day, was likened to “something from a disaster movie” by locals – and businesses in the area have said the three-year closure has impacted trade. Wiltshire Council has since spent about £5million fixing the route. The council’s cabinet member for highways, Nick Holder, told the BBC unless there are “huge amounts of cold weather or rain”, the road is expected to open in spring as planned.
There is still no confirmation of when the road will officially be open to traffic again. Mr Holder said an exact reopening date would be announced when the council is “confident” it would be met, adding “We’re on track, the contractors have done a really good job.” Other factors which have contributed to the damage include a weakness in the road and increased groundwater in the area.
Before the road could be resurfaced, new drainage and a 100-metre retaining wall were installed, and 120 piles were driven 12-metres deep into the ground for stability. Mr Holder explained the repair work had been “very complex” due to the landslip making the ground unstable.
He explained: “This has been a significant construction project and I completely understand that we’ve had businesses disrupted. We’ve had local villages that have had their lanes used by the 5,000 vehicles that have been displaced. But we’ve had to crack on with it and it’s cost us circa £5m to get this fixed.”
Simon Manners, landlord of the Cross Keys pub in Bradenstoke, a village located just off the plagued road, says the closure of the road has contributed to a dramatic slump in visitors. “We have noticed a hell of a drop in foot fall traffic,” he said. “There are a couple of customers who still make the effort. Not as regularly as they used to but they are still coming up to see us.”
And it’s not just the B4069 that’s plagued with problems – with Britain’s potholed roads are killing drivers while costing the British economy a staggering £14billion a year.
A new report being presented to Government will show the AA dealt with 631,852 pothole-related incidents in 2023, the highest for five years. A total of 118 cyclists were killed or serious injured in four years due to defective road surfaces – mainly potholes often filled in with water after heavy rain making them invisible.
Campaign group the Pothole Partnership – a group made up of the AA, British Cycling, the National Motorcyclists Council and JCB – want the Government to act. They claim local councils have had to pay out almost £23million to riders and drivers whose cars or bikes have suffered punctures or damaged wheels, steering and suspension.
The economic damage done by potholes is damage to vehicles, accidents and reduced speeds, road users having to drive more slowly or congestion that is pothole related. Combined with increase global emissions caused by slowing down and speeding up, the group arrived at a total annual economic cost to the country of £14.4billion.
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