Work on ‘Road from Hell’ will end after 23 years

Tony Blair was just halfway through his tenure as Prime Minister and the FA Cup Final was being played in Cardiff when one of Britain’s most expensive and complex road upgrade projects of this century began.

But after 23 years, road works are finally getting underway on the A465 Heads of the Valleys Road in south Wales.

The 28-mile (45 km) £2 billion upgrade to motorway standard was designed to bring prosperity to one of the UK’s most deprived areas.

But some people who live there have called it “the route from hell.”

Work to make the road a full dual carriageway linking Swansea with Monmouthshire began in 2002.

This was 12 years after Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative UK government devised an upgrade program in 1990.

Parts already had two lanes each way, but on other parts of the route there was severe congestion and serious road accidents frequently occurred.

After nearly 35 years of overspending, huge delays, transfers, a global pandemic, land unsuitable for road construction and hundreds of carriageway closures, the end is finally in sight.

“It’s like the road from hell,” said one man from Merthyr Tydfil who was affected. “Even Chris Rea wouldn’t dare come here.”

The road crosses the South Wales Coalfield, a national park and passes close to people’s homes.

The work was divided into six sections, ranked from most to least dangerous for drivers.

Nearly 70 structures – including more than 40 new bridges and a dozen new junctions – have been constructed.

Workers have planted 285,000 trees to reduce its importance environmental impact – Offsetting more than seven million kilograms of CO2 per year – in a country that declared a climate emergency six years ago.

Creatures including bats, dormice and great crested newts have also been relocated.

“The part of Wales we are in is home to some nationally and European protected valuable species and habitats,” said chartered environmentalist Tim Wroblewski.

Engineers have also created nearly nine miles (14 km) of pathways for pedestrians and cyclists in the newest section — having moved the equivalent of about 2,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools of soil.

Welsh minister, who later took over construction of the project transfer in 1999Emphasizes that reform will help communities “left behind by the closure of mines” in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Ken Scates, Transport Minister for Wales, said, “In 50 years’ time, experts will look back and say that the Welsh Government built this road to improve the prospects of the heads of the Welsh communities.”

The A465 was part of a World War II prosperity project to link the steel industry of South Wales with the Midlands, Britain’s old car manufacturing centre.

While the M5 and M50 were designed as fast roads, the valleys were a difficult challenge.

Improvements were needed due to poor visibility, which led to serious accidents on a mainly three-lane road with few safe overtaking locations.

Drivers can now reach speeds of up to 70mph without stopping at roundabouts, which is expected to make it easier for locals to get around and create a flexible alternative route between the Midlands and south-west Wales, allowing people to travel to Newport There will be less pressure on the often congested M4. ,

“It’s not just about moving people and stuff around,” Scates said.

“This is about creating jobs, prosperity, opportunity and better connecting and benefiting communities across the region.”

The given construction cost for the entire project is more than £1.3 billion.

The final two sections currently under construction have a head price of £590 million. But the figure for the final two phases is actually more than £1.4 billion £250 million more than initially reported – The way the project has been funded and the Welsh Government has yet to pay a penny.

Explaining why the cost of the final stage payment has increased, the government said it would have to pay the non-recoupable VAT after “detailed discussions with HMRC”.

It’s being financed using something called a Mutual Investment Model (MIM) – which is like getting a car on finance.

But in this case the Welsh Government would pay about £40 million a year for 30 years and receive an 11-mile road that would be maintained by a private firm until it is returned to public ownership in 2055.

plaid Cymru have said that this method of funding is a “waste of public money” and that private companies would make “substantial amounts of profit”.

The UK left the EU during the scheme, meaning access to funding that had helped in previous sections was no longer available.

The Welsh Government said that without the cash borrowed it would not be able to complete the final section.

Scates said attempting to build something of the same magnitude in the future would be difficult.

The previous five-mile (8 km) section also caused controversy, opening three years late and costing £336m – £133m more than initially agreed.

This came to light after the controversy regarding this How much building work was required and how much construction was completed Visit the delicate site through the protected steep Clydach Gorge site, which includes hidden caves and geologically dangerous terrain.

Keith Jones of the Institution of Civil Engineers said, “Overall, the Heads of the Valleys project is one of the UK’s largest road upgrade projects for many years.”

“And what has been very challenging is to keep the existing road running while work is going on in some challenging and bleak areas.”

These factors combined mean that the full cost with everything included will be around £2 billion.

The Labor Welsh Government said it had learned lessons from the project, changed the construction contracts and reviewed the contractor’s performance indicators.

But Welsh Conservative transport spokesman Peter Fox said the cost and delays of the projects were “a symbol of 25 years of failure of the Labor Party in Wales”.

He said the final “huge” cost would almost cover the destroyed M4 relief road, and the Welsh public would question whether it was worth it.

The £1.6bn M4 relief road south of Newport’s Bringlas Tunnels was a congestion hotspot Removed in 2019 – 29 years after it was first proposed – due to its cost and impact on the environment.

Almost four times more cars use that stretch of motorway every day than Heads of the Valleys Road.

“We don’t want to invest in areas that are already successful and where there’s already opportunity and a lot of jobs,” Scates said.

But people living in communities near long-running road construction have been hardest hit.

“It’s been a nightmare,” said Tanya Houghton, from Merthyr Tydfil.

“It’s horrible because my partner is working in that direction so commuting to work has been a nightmare, I’ll be happy when this is over and I think it will be worth it.”

Her sister Kaylee did not agree, saying it was not needed and “would cost too much money”.

A businessman in the city center claimed that business had declined by 50% due to road construction.

Paula Owen, who has run Paula’s Boutique in St Tydfil Shopping Center for more than six years, said: “It puts people off coming into the town because they have to stand in queues for so long, it’s terrible and it’s really hit us hard. I have influenced.”

“With the impact of COVID, the cost of living crisis and all that, it has been tough.”

He said the works had affected business for a “long time”, but the road would “make a big difference when completed”.

All major road construction projects in Wales, including the M4 relief road, Abolished under the administration of Mark DrakefordBut the current transport minister said a “careful balance” had to be struck.

“You have to reduce carbon emissions, but also bring prosperity and improve people’s lives by investing in skills and infrastructure,” Scates said.

Politicians also point to the legacy of the 250 engineering apprentices who have been trained on the scheme as well as the 5,000 workers employed at various points during the project, with up to 1,000 contractors working on site at any one time on some days .

Two businesses at each end of the project said they have doubled their workforce.

Tony Gibbons, whose firm Atlas is handling the project’s drainage, said, “The project has enabled us to upgrade in both staff and equipment.”

“We employ over 60 people from the local community and it has been transformational for us.

“It has also helped us to successfully tender for other projects because people are confident they can rely on our work because of what we are able to deliver on this scheme.”