Closure of A625 in Derbyshire

[MadMac]

Moderator note - split from:

Might the Whitehaven tunnel issues result in closure? Could Whitehaven be brought back into use? And other speculation on this issue...

I disagree that its over-dramatic to point out that the railway is an important transport link for the region. In terms of Grantham's A&E, they could point to any number of potential mass casualty events as a reason for staying open, however my knowledge of NHS issues is limited, so I wouldn't...

www.railforums.co.uk

Good article on the A625 HERE.

 

[Tester]

Good article on the A625 HERE.

Thank you for that - I'm inspired to go and have a look around next summer.

 

[StoneRoad]

Thank you for that - I'm inspired to go and have a look around next summer.

Mam Tor slip & the remains of the A625 - which are still moving btw - are fascinating. Well worth a visit,
Went there as a student in the late 1970s and again a few years ago. I hadn't remembered how much steep walking was needed. And I had just been up Peveril Castle, so my calf muscles were sulking the following day !

 

[Tester]

Mam Tor slip & the remains of the A625 - which are still moving btw - are fascinating. Well worth a visit,
Went there as a student in the late 1970s and again a few years ago. I hadn't remembered how much steep walking was needed. And I had just been up Peveril Castle, so my calf muscles were sulking the following day !

Looks like walking between Edale and Hope would work well.

Any suggestion for which direction?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Looks like walking between Edale and Hope would work well.

Any suggestion for which direction?

I'd go up from Edale to Mam Tor, down to the road, along its full length then into Castleton for lunch, then either footpath to Hope or back over Hollins Cross to Edale. To me it feels more impressive with the drop-offs going downhill than it does going uphill, uphill it just looks like piles of waste.

 

[Tester]

I'd go up from Edale to Mam Tor, down to the road, along its full length then into Castleton for lunch, then either footpath to Hope or back over Hollins Cross to Edale. To me it feels more impressive with the drop-offs going downhill than it does going uphill, uphill it just looks like piles of waste.

Thanks for that

 

[Pinus contorta]

Its doing something similar on the Ventnor side of the Isle of Wight. Just as an aside.

 

[edwin_m]

The Snake could be going the same way.

Fears major landslip could shut A57 Snake Pass for good

There are four landslips along the famously twisty stretch of road currently.

www.bbc.co.uk

The Peak District's infamous Snake Pass could potentially be shut for good by a major landslip.
Derbyshire County Council has warned that ongoing works to keep the A57 route linking Sheffield and Manchester open are not "long-term" solutions.
Increasingly frequent ongoing roadworks are able to keep the route open for now but should a large-scale issue arise, the road may have to shut for good.
It is a situation that the authority has faced before - in 1977, the A625 - which used to cross the Peak District near Mam Tor - had to shut due to a landslip.
Snake Pass, which is used by about 30,000 vehicles a week, exists in a constant state of slipping, explained Julian Gould, the council's highways director, and Councillor Charlotte Cupit, cabinet member for highways assets and transport, to the Local Democracy Reporting Service on a site visit this week.

 

[Killingworth]

The basic instability of the landscape in that region is a major reason why the Hope Valley rail route's line speeds can't be significantly improved without incurring massive expense. The land slips below Mam Tor are massive but if you look along the Edale valley there are several others, and there's another above Hathersage not far off Ringinglow Road.

I recall driving the old A625 in 1979 just before it closed for the last time. This was it 5 years ago. It's slipped more since.

 

[ian1944]

Is the Mam Tor road legally, or just practically, closed? I ask because on a visit years ago some scrambler-type motorbikes were driving the full length - would this be possible now even if not actually debarred?

 

[Killingworth]

Is the Mam Tor road legally, or just practically, closed? I ask because on a visit years ago some scrambler-type motorbikes were driving the full length - would this be possible now even if not actually debarred?

See pictures in my previous post 9. The road has gone. Scrambler bikes may well take on the challenge but whether legally barred or not they won't be impressing walkers or those with sheep on the mountain.

 

[PTR 444]

The Snake could be going the same way.

Fears major landslip could shut A57 Snake Pass for good

There are four landslips along the famously twisty stretch of road currently.

www.bbc.co.uk

If this is true, something will definitely need to be done with both the A628 over Woodhead and the Winnats Pass, as they would likely struggle with the additional traffic.

Speaking of which, I’ve just come back from a holiday in Madeira and I’m amazed at how much of its road network has been bypassed by tunnel alignments, so much so the majority of journeys between intermediate villages on the main road network are through tunnels. That’s pretty impressive for an island with a population of 250,000 and about twice the area of the Isle of Wight.

This might sound a completely stupid question in the context of British political will, but if the Portuguese can thread a whole network of tunnels through mountainous coastal terrain to replace most of its dangerous legacy roads over a 20 year timeframe, why can’t we at the very least get a Manchester - Sheffield tunnel?

 

[AndrewE]

Speaking of which, I’ve just come back from a holiday in Madeira and I’m amazed at how much of its road network has been bypassed by tunnel alignments, so much so the majority of journeys between intermediate villages on the main road network are through tunnels. That’s pretty impressive for an island with a population of 250,000 and about twice the area of the Isle of Wight.

This might sound a completely stupid question in the context of British political will, but if the Portuguese can thread a whole network of tunnels through mountainous coastal terrain to replace most of its dangerous legacy roads over a 20 year timeframe, why can’t we at the very least get a Manchester - Sheffield tunnel?

a) they are part of Portugal and in the EU and so both are a good source of finance for boosting a rural economy - in this case by improving transport links which might encourage tourism*
b) their governments aren't so focussed on feather-bedding the capital and ignoring the outlying regions...

* we actually found it a nuisance, as the tunnels took the buses away from places where we wanted to start and finish walks!

 

[jfollows]

I certainly remember being driven over this road by my parents; I passed my driving test in 1979 and don’t remember driving over it myself before it closed. It was pretty and interesting and I think we went back to walk around the area once the road closed.

 

[edwin_m]

I have vague memories of trundling up in a coach after a school trip to the caverns.

 

[Bald Rick]

This might sound a completely stupid question in the context of British political will, but if the Portuguese can thread a whole network of tunnels through mountainous coastal terrain to replace most of its dangerous legacy roads over a 20 year timeframe, why can’t we at the very least get a Manchester - Sheffield tunnel?

a) they are part of Portugal and in the EU and so both are a good source of finance for boosting a rural economy - in this case by improving transport links which might encourage tourism*
b) their governments aren't so focussed on feather-bedding the capital and ignoring the outlying regions...

c) geology

 

[AM9]

I certainly remember being driven over this road by my parents; I passed my driving test in 1979 and don’t remember driving over it myself before it closed. It was pretty and interesting and I think we went back to walk around the area once the road closed.

In 1962 I spent a week in the Edale Youth Hostal with my school. Whilst there we walked up to Hollins Cross, along the Mam Tor ridge path to the summit itself and then down to the Winnats pass to the Speedwell Mine. Whilst on the ridge path we could look down on the A625 at a continuous procession of rigid eight trucks crawling up the the hairpin at the top. Winnats was pedestrian-only being the site of frequent rockfalls which were strewn across the road.
It's worth mentioning that from the ridge path, the Manchester-Sheffield trains could be seen (and heard when the wind stopped).

 

[AndrewE]

c) geology

Makes it easy? I am surprised at that. I don't remember any detail from when we went there, but Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_Madeira suggests that the geology is like the Canaries, big flows of solid basalt and ashy layers - which if it is like the Canaries are intermixed at all sorts of angles.

I would have thought that would make tunnelling a nightmare, but then (in my experience) if you give the engineers a remit they just get on with it and find a way round difficulties. I guess a TBM could easily have ports in the shield for drilling ahead and grouting loose/rubbly bits.