Repair work on landslip damaged Derbyshire road set to start nine months after closure

Lea Road, between Cromford and Lea Bridge, was closed on January 15 after a 45-metre section started to crumble away and slide into a nearby riverbank following sustained heavy rainfall.

Eight months on, Derbyshire County Council, which closed the road, has now said work to repair the route will start by the end of October with an aim to complete repairs by the end of December, almost a year after the incident.

This is, despite the delays to work caused by Covid-19 lockdown, an improvement on the potential closure of the route until July 2021, as detailed in the authority’s road closure order in January.

The authority said this week: “On January 14, the edge of the road started to fall away down the steep banking below and to safeguard the public we had to close the road the following day.

“The road kept collapsing and in March a ground investigation was carried out where a number of boreholes were drilled into the ground.

“This showed that the landslip had taken place because the ground was saturated, following a very wet few months.

“We have now asked a specialist contractor to provide us with a solution and expect work to start on site by the end of October.

“We hope that the work will be complete by the end of December.

“We realise that the road closure is really inconvenient for many local people and are doing all we can to get the road open as soon as we can.

“We did experience a delay earlier in the year due to the coronavirus pandemic, but are now on track with a programme of work.”

The council estimated that damage caused by flooding and record-breaking rainfall from November onwards cost the authority £20 million, with central government not offering any compensation.

When the Local Democracy Reporting Service visited the site in January, residents near the closure said it was both a blessing and a curse.

This was because it took troublesome traffic away but was making it more burdensome to get to Wirksworth and Matlock Bath.

They said the route was a well-known rat-run for motorists trying to avoid congestion on the A6.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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