The Main Road That's COLLAPSED And CLOSED FOR OVER A YEAR! - A226 Swanscombe & Northfleet Kent

#roads #driving #infrastructure
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It looks to me like we've a bit of an issue... there's some road missing. In this video we'll take a look at what's happened to the A226, a main road in Kent. It's been closed for well over a year and it's looking like it'll be closed for a lot longer than we might have first thought.

[@harveybrooks2597]

How a thin wall of chalk has been allowed to remain a road is the most amazing part.

[@Vanha21]

Safety margin was not a thing in past and safety in general was not first thing to consider.

[@geoffsclassiccars]

Not sure what's worse the thin chalk wall or the extremely stupid water mains pipe location !

[@btuckervideos4705]

Also, how it managed to survive as long as it did without significant issue is amazing too

[@tonys1636]

@@geoffsclassiccars Water mains are laid under roads as only the one permission required' not many from many different Landowners.

[@geoffsclassiccars]

@@tonys1636 thank you that's interesting! I was thinking from the point who approved planning permission for/surveyed location of the pipes although I understand choice would be limited

[@stunimbus1543]

Slight irony that the road demolished the building owned by a demolition company.

[@Andy-fd5fg]

i was thinking that too

[@markwhittingham7626]

I used to work there! Fortunately several years ago.....

[@stevekelly5166]

It also dumped a load of used tyres behind their toilet block.

[@295g295]

> 1:01 < Lancebox Group

[@KentRoads]

the collapsed road is still better than 99% of Kent roads

[@iamjimb]

I think Luton Road in Chatham is secretly being quarried

[@mrapps135]

Best fact I know as being not far away from here is the locals actually held a birthday party once the road passed the first anniversary of the collapse

[@longbar2344]

happened on a closed road here in Swindon after lockdown. short bit of road closed for over a year then took another year to finish

[@mwstewart]

How British 😊

[@typesetter_real]

heard about that lmao

[@laurencecharlton8760]

Sarcasm is what makes this channel a must watch!! 👍👍

[@stephenwhite345]

Top quality sarcasm too with an air of carefree cynicism 😊

[@patrickphair488]

Really !

[@frankupton5821]

There's no problem that can't be made worse by lawyers.

[@munehaus]

Imagine a world without lawyers.... 🙂 kzbin.info/www/bejne/q3iWppiXYq2pr5Y

[@garethaethwy]

There's no problem that can't be made worse by Thames Water...

[@roderickmain9697]

Chalk and water. Water freezes, creates cracks. More water gets in, slightly acidic makes cracks bigger. Eventually the whole thing becomes unstable and cliffs collapse (ask anyone who has lived near Brighton to Eastbourne). So safest answer - take the whole thing down and build a bridge....or leave it and one day it will fall down on its own.

[@chrismoule7242]

This.

[@kabongpope]

Solution: chalk & cheese

[@philtucker1224]

Yes I think they have decided to do that. (It doesn’t cost them too much just not having that road there at all any more…) just more traffic through the back streets I expect..

[@mojonojo3]

Problem with this will be the lawyers - Council will want water co. to foot the bill for bridge, water co. will want to remediate only. and the lawyers will go round and round like hamsters until the end of time.

[@philtucker1224]

@@mojonojo3 correct. That road isn’t needed now anyway and they will just bring by-pass plans forward a few years.

[@adamjolley8552]

I like this video so I pressed the button specifically for that 👉🏻

[@samholdsworth420]

This button 👎🏼?

[@plumberman4u]

Don't you mean 👇

[@davidgarside941]

I do love a specific button , so much better than an unspecified one 😂

[@Sarge084]

Really!? Real fans of this channel press the button *then* like the video!!!

[@tomcat2395]

that road is amazing or terrifying depending on if you drive off it. You cant blame Thames Water, you see they need to spend billions on shareholder dividends which are far more important than maintenance

[@medler2110]

Well you might have a point, but don't expect nationalisation to improve how these utilities are run, just after privatisation I worked on the digitising the old paper maps of the Yorkshire Water network, the maps were ancient and it was obvious that they hadn't been kept up to date or nobody had a clue where most of the pipes were, what they were made of or how long they been there.

[@tomcat2395]

There has been no investment in sewage treatment or reservoirs since privatisation so we don’t keep pace with the numbers of people who now live in the UK which is one reason they are full of shit. Keep costs high and maintenance low for dividends

[@UnitSe7en]

@@tomcat2395 Exactly. Private for-profit companies have no motivation to do anything but what they're forced to over whatever drives profit. How old are these anti-nat loons? They must not be old enough to remember a time before privatization and have their head full of their sociology teacher's nonsense.

[@alanhat5252]

​@@medler2110almost certainly that information was word-of-mouth & need-to-know but would have been thorough (though only mapped privately by the workers). It's an ancient way of preserving jobs, sacking the people with the knowledge has proved much more costly than retaining them.

[@alanhat5252]

​​@@tomcat2395indeed, paying shareholder dividends is written into several very strict laws but maintenance isn't a legal requirement at all 😢 (Although dropping cliffs on businesses carries legal penalties).

[@viewer922]

If you don't stop with your sarcastic sense of humour I will have to keep watching! Love it.

[@davidioanhedges]

So somebody thought excavating both sides of the road away was a perfectly good idea, nothing that will ever have any issues ...

[@SekritJay]

Victorians. Wayagunnadoo, far as they were concerned if it was a problem for poor people it wasn't a problem

[@jonathanhall7334]

You can bet they're not around anymore 😂😂😂

[@garethaethwy]

In chalk, that notoriously strong stone able to withstand the effects of weathering...

[@mikecrimlis3366]

@@SekritJay But poor people in Victorian time were still Victorians...

[@thebrowns5337]

​@@mikecrimlis3366 but our current tory government and the huge for profit companies their lot keep selling our assets too also share the 'it's going to be a future problem for poor people to deal with' stance.

[@aleccoates9094]

The drone shots for this one are great! Whoever decided this monstrosity of landscaping was a good idea is surely suffering an endless pothole filled journey in hell.

[@JoshLuck95]

I live in swanscombe, me and my partner drove up that road the morning of the road collapse, there was water gushing down the road from a burst water pipe, there are plenty other witnesses to this but thames water cannot seem to comprehend how on earth it could be their fault!

[@kramer26]

Don't be daft, nothing could possibly be Thames water's fault, as long as they're keeping their shareholders happy...

[@KallistiUK]

I grew up in Swanscombe, took the bus to school in Gravesnd along this road for years, walked by dog in the old chalk pits either side of the road for years and awlays marvelled a the stupidity of the chalk excavations going so close to the road. The fact that nothing was ever done to support this road before this happened is insane, even though for decades it was the main route between Dartford and Gravesend before Bluewater opened and the Eurotunnel station was built and a load of new roads were built to give alternative routes.

[@callumduddle]

Wow haha, I was shocked to see you cover this story, This road has caused so much havoc in Swanscombe and Northfleet especially when there is congestion or an accident on the A2 which is pretty much every day. I used to use this road whenever there was a problem on the A2. And I dont see it being fixed anytime soon. 🙄

[@MikeAJGriffin]

Used to take about 30 mins to get to Bluewater from Gravesend on a bus, on a decent day with not too much traffic. The diversion caused by this road collapse is so convoluted, it’s now genuinely quicker to get a train from Gravesend to Greenhithe, and a bus from there onwards to Bluewater. Not cheap but it’s probably an hour of your life not spent on a diversion that makes you wish to god you had a car.

[@DavidShepheard]

Here is an idea for solving the problem: 1) Instead of demolishing the entire line of chalk, chop down several small sections from road level to surface level, 2) Build foundations at the new ground level, 3) Erect bridge supports that take the road back up to the current (original surface) height, 4) Slide in a bridge deck along the current road surface, 5) Dig out the chalk below the bridge deck to lower it down onto the new bridge supports, 6) Reopen the road and 7) Carefully dig out the rest of the chalk, after the bridge is open. The sale of the chalk should hopefully offset some of the costs of replacing the road with a bridge. And the extra land, below the new bridge can either be used to make roads under the A226 or rented out to the people who own the land next to the current road. (The bridge would presumably need to be a double-decker bridge, with the lower level being used for water pipes, communications cables, etc.)

[@Jehty_]

Who's gonna buy the chalk? The chalk pits closed for a reason, and that reason is that nobody wanted that chalk anymore (for the price they could offer).

[@ukar69]

Being on a parish council it's not unusual for there to be wrangling when it comes down to the responsibility and upkeep of certain features. Water companies, local councils, Highways Agency and landowners usually point at each other in a Spiderman type of way.

[@Vtarngpb]

Bloody Councils…

[@David_Crayford]

Fix the problem. Not the blame.

[@mojonojo3]

@@David_Crayford With blame comes a bill - the blame is the first thing to sort if you dont want the bill

[@wozwolf1]

Build a bridge, put the water rates up but deny any responsibility and add some ULEZ cameras, problem sorted 😅

[@ehsnils]

Ignore the problem because it's an SEP. That's a Douglas Adams approach.

[@afaulconbridge]

@@ehsnils only if its painted bright pink first

[@ehsnils]

@@afaulconbridge Now, how long will that take before someone decides to do that as a prank?

[@IndigoJo]

There's no ULEZ here; it's Kent not London.

[@wozwolf1]

@@IndigoJo its called humour, there's a emoji just for it 🤣

[@inchmanor]

I live in Swanscombe and this has caused nightmares with traffic, for a good 6 months before this happened we were all reporting water leaks on this section of road and Thames water did fuck all.

[@RollingThunder2020]

The first drone shot made me think "Oh, just a sinkhole..." then the second side shot made my jaw drop.

[@PiousMoltar]

For a significant portion of the video, I was thinking there was only a cliff on one side. I too was flabbergasted when I realised the reality.

[@ajw9533]

Thames Water, the original shitshow.

[@EdgyNumber1]

No. The original, literal, shitshow.

[@zogzoogler]

Saw the title and thought it was the closed A59 Kexgill, commented, then I read the title. Standard KZbin protocol.

[@johnabbitt690]

Oh look, that's were we live! Am I internet famous now? Another great video John, it was wicked, sweet, awesome!😊

[@jonathonbrett-qn1ic]

A very unique road with a very unique problem Thank you again Jon brilliant

[@andymerrett]

Poor Cliff. That sign does make him look a bit unstable running around flailing his hands in the air as rocks fall on him from all of 2ft above.

[@waerlogauk]

If the material is so valuable, the surrounding area was entirely quarried away. Why not finish the job quarry away the section with the road on it, leaving a ramp at each end to join on to the bridge and the continuation of the road. Surely this would be cheaper than building a bridge and would leave the road at a convenient level for the surrounding access.

[@DM-ur8vc]

A ramp to jump the gap? Dukes of Hazard style?

[@waerlogauk]

@@DM-ur8vc Nice idea but I was thinking of a ramp up to the rail bridge level.

[@theresnobodyhere5778]

engineers dont do simple they gotta make it so complicated and 50 tomes more expensive,. HS2 you know 100 billion over priced

[@rickconstant6106]

The elevation change is much greater than it appears in the video, so this would be totally impractical, the gradient up to the top of the hill would be far too steep. The chalk is only valuable if you have a local use for it, such as cement factories, but they are all long gone.

[@theresnobodyhere5778]

@@rickconstant6106 yeh i agree but the boffins will want to do a tunnel and go under the railway then a ramp to no wheres and a bridge over the ramp and let it sit for 50 years and say ,WELL WE HAD AN IDEA A PLAN but it was crazy, so we abandoned it,, nice bridge though it won awards in its day

[@mrslimesmasher101]

''that would be chaos'' ''the chaos began'' get this man an oscar

[@chrishartley1210]

A similar collapse on the busy A6025 in West Yorkshire meant that the road was closed between Feb 2020 and Feb 2022. Instead of getting on with the work to repair the road, the council seemed more concerned with finding someone else to pay for it. The delays must have cost the local economy several times the actual cost of the repairs. It was 17 months before repairs started. I suspect there are many similarities with the apparent inaction at this site.

[@derder454]

If you send a drone up and circle the area it looks like a piece of honeycomb where the chalk has been removed over the years in a multitude of similar places.

[@timballam3675]

Everyone is trying to get out of paying for the repairs, the water leaks could have been caused by movement of the roadway and the movement of the roadway could be caused by water leaks. However rain water has a PH of 4.2 to 4.4 so will dissolve the chalk a lot quicker than a leak of hard water......

[@thebrowns5337]

The top is nicely sealed by the road so rain only hits the sides which will weather down over time but can easily be inspected. Water under pressure will cause serious erosion no matter it's PH. You can literally cut metal, granite... pretty much anything with water if you get enough pressure so it's easy to see how it will erode chalk, especially when left to go on for so long.

[@timballam3675]

@@thebrowns5337 the number of times I've heard that one.... Roads arn't impervious to water ingress. Why do you think national highways spends millions a year on waterproofing bridge decks?

[@thebrowns5337]

​@@timballam3675 the velocity and volumes between water seeping gently through layers of bitumen and stone vs jetting out of a pressurised pipe are vastly different though. Using your example for bridge decks they waterproof them because we use a salt/grit/urea mixture to spray our roads with in winter and the small amount of this that can pass through carriageway surfacing will, over time, corrode the steel reinforcement used in the concrete deck. The waterproofing isn't there because there is a massive flow. We dont waterproof arch bridges and the oartar is not washed out from above and I can show you many bridges where, if we exposed the deck and the fill behind the abutment you would see no specific drainage, just PFA or 6n - again demonstrating water flow and volume are not much of a consideration at all. I worked for many years in a 'structure' team and bridges were our main thing.

[@hattix6713]

There's a similar situation on the A635 in South Yorkshire. Some genius torched a car under a bridge. Road closed. Then opened as a traffic light controlled single lane. Then closed again. Traffic diverted through the two nearby residential and industrial areas. Heavy traffic and lots of it!

[@stefencooke]

Though there had sorted that by now

[@LabTech41]

Removing the chalk and putting a bridge over the same span is probably the only realistic long-term solution; fortunately, the entire other side of the wall appears to be empty space, so the removal could be set up so that most or all of the debris would fall that way, and not further impact the occupied lots.

[@stevekelly5166]

As a railwayman, I'd be more concerned about the railway running south of there between Swanscombe and Northfleet on a similar chalk embankment. The railway you show was constructed around 1999 and is HS1, or the Channel Tunnel line. They had to cut the chalk out of the A226 road and provide the bridge. Same happened to the rail route between Swanscome and Northfleet. EEK!

[@Darryl_Frost]

We might have to start planning a committee to evaluate the possibility of planning a study on the impact of a possible evaluation of the potential of the cost of the planning organization of the impact evaluation.

[@stevecann3394]

What a cliffhanger that was 👍

[@stephenwhite345]

Corny but good😂

[@David_Crayford]

👏

[@rogeremberson6464]

The "experts" seem to have forgotten that chalk is water soluble, not solid, like granite.

[@simonmoore2380]

Well….it’s porous and relatively soft as rock goes. It isn’t water soluble……

[@thebrowns5337]

What makes you think they have 'forgotten'? They all know it but what can they do with an inheirted asset and no money? The only ones that can easily pay for decent inspection and maintenance are the privatised water companies who should have not let the pipe leak in the first place. But they just care about profit and our government encourages that stance by removing funding for the regulator and reducing oversight/standards these companies should work to.

[@Bigbluevwvan]

Don't worry Rishi will say he will fix it IF we elect him

[@VectorTracker]

But surely fixing this road might mean he can’t afford sky for even longer?😮

[@johnturner4400]

@@VectorTrackerno dishy for Rishi…

[@chrisshelley3027]

Is he going to fix it including any shit it was full of? If not he is so full of shit he has plenty to spare.

[@Oligodendrocyte139]

Starmer will try to get the non--doms to pay. And fail.

[@Oligodendrocyte139]

OK, so my slightly anti - Starmer comment gets blocked? Interesting censorship.

[@philipmurphy2]

Sounds like UK needs a new government that would sort everything out maybe

[@ChimpManZ1264]

It's councils that argue these matters. The Government issues funding for sustainable plans in order of top priority. The councils will often bicker and try not to take responsibility and in situations where the land affected causes conflicts amongst communities they let that delay action.

[@thebrowns5337]

​@@ChimpManZ1264Local authorities had their budgets cut by 50% quite early in the Tory reign. The Tories then told them social care was being decentralised and would be coming out of...local authority budgets. So they lost 50% and got a new spend which takes up between 70 and 80% of what is left of their budgets on average. To compensate them slightly the tories allowed local tax rises of 4-5% a year knowing the populus would just lay blame at the door of their local authority. It's a tory stealth tax and nowhere near makes up for what the tories took from us (it's all our money, it's our assets they are closing or selling) yet they get away with it and even gaslight the local authorities that are going bust, using them as political point scoring. They don't seem to notice all the tory ones that have already gone bust, some more than once. Meanwhile they are paying friends and donors for things like dodgy PPE, storing dodgy PPE, housing migrants that they refuse to allow to work or integrate (the guy that owns most of the housing just shot onto the Times rich list this year) and his sites are old publicly funded sites he bought for a pittence!

[@dodgydruid]

I have fond memories of that road back in the 70's hurtling along on my big purple Chopper (Raleigh not tadger) on the roundabout route from Gravesend to Northfleet swimming baths as they had closed the awesome Gravesend Lido and I did enjoy a good swim... I got into trouble for swimming across the Thames to Tilbury during a low tide, old man me today shudders at by a million to one chance I got across but was near exhaustion and got roundly bollocked by Essex police to go home and get even more roundly bollocked by parents. I didn't know a thing about riptides and underwater swirls, I just jumped in and went for it and by a fluke got there hehe It was thought my later contraction of meningitis was linked to being submerged in the then absolute filth the Thames was, although I never swallowed any, it could have gotten in nose or ears and started the infection that put me in a coma for 1 year ironically at Joyce Green hospital not far from where you filmed this :D

[@Deepthought-42]

As a Statutory Undertaker Thames Water should pay for their negligence in not fixing the leaks.

[@artfulbodger..2143]

I used to work in Northfleet and living in stone, used this road day in day out for years over 10 years… There wasn’t a week that went by where it wasn’t being dug up for one reason or another. But it’s typical of the local councils to drag their feet over this, like they do with everything else in the area. this road won’t be sorted for years..

[@fredziffle1991]

2 obvious things here, decline of the water network and decline of the maintenance of our roads network

[@thebrowns5337]

all while taxes on the poorer folk in the UK and our national debt have gone up. Can't wait for the general election.

[@Spike20101000]

"Built on a vertical pile of chalk, what could possibly go wrong". They could try and spin this, or just admit that it was always going to fail at some point and knock the whole lot down. They could use it as infill for a new road levelling out the land.

[@Philip471]

There's a similar situation down here on the south of the Isle of Wight, only replace "burst water pipe" with falling into the sea due to a lot of bad weather we had over several months. You should come down here and do a video on that. Also, the Military road here is meters away from the cliff edge at certain points as well.

[@richardvoogd705]

Similar problem here in New Zealand with the road through the Manawatu Gorge, with several landslides and slips interfering with traffic flow. The solution chosen here is to build what amounts to a bypass.

[@solariss452]

The ferry is too expensive. It's about 10 times the price of a Scottish ferry for the same distance. How can that be?

[@Trev5]

​​@@solariss452The Scottish ferries are great for Road Trip Island hopping down the West Coast 👍 Lucky for the Scottish population, the "Barnett Formula" means English's Tax payers subside the ferries, so a 30min ferry ride for car & two people is ~£16..!! Though the H&S on the ferries is a bit suspect at times.... So get what you pay for ..!! 😬

[@oddball_the_blue]

Awww those end credit tunes... * runs off to dig out Gran Tourismo 1, 2, 3 and 4 just to listen to the menu music *

[@geoffreycoan]

They need to start a consultation on what to do with the road, that’s real progress

[@Gibbo263]

They could build a new road to the north of the area, with a bridge over the entrance to the tunnel, then knock down the old one and not bother to replace the section over the railway apart from maybe a footpath

[@kgbgb3663]

I was just coming here to say that. The tunnel portal on HS1 can only be about a quarter of a mile north of the A226, and if you joined up the roads sensibly it wouldn't cause anything like half a mile's extra distance on most routes. It could also open up the area to the north for development. (Though not being local I don't know whether that is desirable.) The existing route could be retained for pedestrians, cyclists, mobility scooters etc.

[@steamingfish7724]

Don't expect it to be open again that quickly, there's a road near me that (partially?) collapsed in January 2021 and they're only just getting round to designing the fix, so I don't imagine it'll be fixed before 2026. This road in Kent will probably be closed until 2030, by which point they'll say that residents have done without it for 5 years and rebuilding it will cause induced demand

[@simonbeckett690]

Your forgetting that the road mentioned in this video is in the South East of England!!!! Not just outside of a small North Wales Town.....

[@NoName-qz7xf]

Traffic gets even worse when the A2 is shut and there is even more traffic on those local roads.

[@RalfyCustoms]

Hello John, happy days, roads closed for over a year, who would have thought 😂

[@djones-np8ik]

This is just one part of many similar roads in the area, some of the quarrying has been backfilled with various rubbish and building and other waste, the pits Bluewater shopping Centre was built in was supposed to be reinstated after Blue Circle finished quarrying, but the local government body responsible for the mineral rights extraction aggreement couldn't find that part of the documentation when quarrying was completed also as the water table was breached fresh water from the aquifer is now being pumped 24 hrs a day into the Thames to prevent the shopping centre from flooding. Maybe next time theyre contemplating a hosepie ban, someone should turn the pumps off!

[@roysmith9733]

Thanks John, another great video.

[@samholdsworth420]

It seems all of England is crumbling 😊

[@davenz000]

More than just the roads.......

[@rhisands2063]

I've heard that with global climate change, all of lower England will be underwater with current emissions levels in a hundred years. I'm gonna go rev my van for an hour, I can't wait a hundred years.

[@David_Crayford]

Better live here than Russia, IMO.

[@rhisands2063]

@@David_Crayford I mean, that is setting the bar super low though. What if I said the choices were here or the Bahamas? Or Okinawa? Or even Australia. I mean, now we're in a contest.

[@kgbgb3663]

@@David_Crayford Russian living standards in PPP terms are now higher than Britain's, according to data I saw recently. Russia is booming -- its economy has overtaken Germany's and Japan's in the last couple of years. Demand for skilled workers is sky high, and they take immigrants. (Though it helps if you don't have a record of unthinking Russophobia.)

[@typesetter_real]

My dad's business is in the industrial estate below the road and the closures really messed up their deliveries

[@norrisollie]

There is a road in Leigh on Sea that has had temporary traffic lights for over a year, maybe two, due to it being on the side of a cliff, and badgers have burrowed under the road causing risk of a slip and subsidence!

[@marktickner7160]

Swanscombe’s big hole. They’re looking into it…

[@RSPYT]

That’s funny you’re there… I was there when it collapsed and I’d driven over it the day before it fell. The water pipe was leaking for MONTHS lol.

[@52egdim]

Privatising water was such a good idea

[@windy33a]

Delicious irony of a demolition company being...........demolished

[@gfdezxdfg]

thanks for the video and also thanks for the gt4 music at the end

[@katiemace8864]

Thank you for these Educational videos

[@MelanieRuck-dq5uo]

I just love Jon's reversal of the importance of loss of water verses loss of internet!

[@1258-Eckhart]

Danke! Fascinating revelation!

[@doctorwalex]

Great. Love your sauce.

[@reecestanford426]

This road is round the corner from my work and I've lived in the area all my life, my dad remembers when they were meant to use the backfill from the channel tunnel to strengthen the cliff but put it into an area near cheriton to make an industrial estate. Alot of businesses are struggling because of this road being ruined. As far as im aware they're still arguing who's paying between Dartford Borough Council, Thames Water and Kent Highways. Oh and they're planning on redeveloping the area by the football ground in the future too so that road needs to be fixed asap

[@paulqueripel3493]

Thames water are playing the long game. Going to go bankrupt before anything happens and whoever takes over will have to pay (the government, therefore the taxpayer).

[@user-pq1gy2xx9v]

Used to use that bit of road often but wondered just how long it would survive. Glad I live in the Midlands now. Jon. You’re 1:07 slipping again no wicked, sweet, awesome at the end

[@shaun30-3-mg9zs]

Hi Jon, We have a similar problem in Wrexham ( the county ) 8 miles south of Wrexham on the B5605 at Cefn Bychan / New Bridge in January 2021 after a storm had washed away the the bank where the bridge support holding the road. This road was used as a diversion route for the A483. Over 30 years ago this route was the A483 before it was down graded to the B5605 when New Bridge and Pentre was by-passed and the A483 had a new route. Great video

[@AlexSPQR]

I used to live in Ingress park (which is quite near this) the absolute madness during rush hour trying to get around near this is maddening. It increased most journeys east by abiut 45 mins to an hour due to all traffic flowing through to the other avenues of traffic

[@essjayaitch]

The B5605 just south of Wrexham has been closed for over 3 years because of a landslide. Although not a main road, when the nearby A483 gets closed (which is common due to accidents or high winds) the traffic that would normally be able to use the B5605 then has to take a 14 mile diversion

[@5impleSteph]

I used this when I lived in Gravesend, always thought it was an odd road being like a chalk bridge across the mine made valley

[@BerlietGBC]

I know this section of road well i used to visit the cement works that were there, I seam to remember there was a tunnel through it to allow access to each side of the road, first time I went into the cement works I was amazed at the road sitting up on this slender piece of chalk

[@heinzie5]

not only did they allow the landscape to remain like this but they also seemed to think a thin sliver of crumbly chalk with a road on it would make a great viaduct instead of just running the pipes under the surrounding land

[@tylertheotaku9270]

Gran Turismo music as the end theme ❤❤❤❤

[@Teithio_cymraeg]

Very similar to the B5605 newbridge road , the old main road been closed for 4 years and no sign of repair , all traffic is going on the a5 but when there is a crash or high winds its a 10 mile diversion via llangollen

[@NikEastwood161]

Thanks

[@tobyjackman3212]

This is the best video I've ever seen about anything

[@markjlewis]

Still enjoying the content and your wonderful sarcastic delivery. 😀

[@julianpenfold1638]

Reminds me of the Petersham Hole on the main road between Richmond and Kingston which was closed for over a year in 79/80. We had to get off the 65 bus, walk down some side streets and get on another bus on the other side of the hole. Road traffic was diverted via Richmond Park.

[@jameshardy-jones5543]

There is a bridge in North wales called Llanerch Bridge in Trefnant . It was washed away in January 2021, and it still hasn’t been replaced and no time line to replace it.

[@paulqueripel3493]

Hammersmith bridge in west London closed in 2019, due to cracks. It's listed, so they can't knock it down, & they can't afford to repair it. The IRA tried to blow it up twice, if we ask nicely could someone more competent try again, then they might build a bridge fit for modern life. Not sure why it's grade two listed, it's fugly.

[@chasc301]

The main road in the village of Hallsands in South Devon has suffered a similar fate due to an undermining by industry. Worth taking a read and then a visit Jon. Give the Saab a chance to stretch its legs and also enjoy some D-Day era roads one of which is tidal. Lovely. Have a good week.

[@db1418]

The A377 from Barnstaple to Exeter has had multiple subsidence issues, one took 3 years to finally complete another one is still there after at least 2 years controlled by traffic lights.... naturally it is full of massive potholes as well.

[@miniscus5]

What a weird road! Will need to have a look when I am in the area

[@HazyIndustries]

This was a main daily route for me in the lorry until it collapsed, really inconvenient if you ask me. Locals have said the local authorities probably won’t fix it due to the cost.

[@JHBEM]

Like the little subtitle clip of some sauce

[@PiousMoltar]

Wow what an absurd road, I had no idea it even existed.

[@markgomer9413]

Seems like you could almost do a mini series on collapsed roads. I’m fairly local to the probably now infamous B5605 - Newbridge that’s been closed since January 2021 due to a landslip. Only recently have the repair contracts gone out to tender and no plans drawn up yet, as far as I know.

[@DuanLeadingham]

That road is crazy, imagine crashing off the edge. With the ability for many crashes to happen on straights these days

[@christophzeiner697]

Remove the cliff and build a bridge. Better safe than sorry.

[@thebrowns5337]

Does it even need a bridge? A ramp at either end (one for the road junction and one for the existing bridge) would be far easier and cheaper. Bet the water company would argue against that due to the loss (and regaining) of elevation causing friction in the system.

[@Jehty_]

​@@thebrowns5337is there enough space for two ramps? That stretch of road is around 260m long. Jon said the cliff was 10m tall, so at let's say a 6% gradient each ramp would need 166m.

[@thebrowns5337]

​@@Jehty_You wouldn't need to go all the way down to ground level - leave the last 3m or so to reduce elevation change.

[@Jehty_]

@@thebrowns5337 then each ramp would still require 116m. Of course they might go steeper, or elevate the ground even more, but I would assume that at some point a bridge is just cheaper and better.

[@johnoneill5661]

You really really wouldn’t want to go off the edge of this road 😮

[@raymondflanagan9355]

Liked the "some sauces" blipvert.

[@pauleff3312]

I would have thought that building a retaining wall there, essentially replacing the building that's been collapsed onto would be quite straightforward. That looks like 3 or 4 (let's say 4) 40' long containers x 4 high (so 16 in total. Fill them full of concrete. Gabian basket type stuff

[@CakeboyRiP]

I am glad you recorded the sauces about of the road closure 😂

[@pastymansixtynine]

I’m owning up to nothing after driving artics on that road for years, there’s talk of a lower level bypass going via the outside of the industrial estate. The alternative route is out to the A2 then come off a the Bean interchange towards Bluewater, this brings you out at the Blue Star junction, M25 J1, named after a cafe many years ago, today it’s a BP petrol station.

[@craigberesford726]

Have a look at the snake pass in Derbyshire that got close two years ago now they’ve reopened it to any vehicle under 7.5 tons but still not repaired. I think this excuse to stop HGVs using the road as a shortcut to Sheffield

[@Jonathan_Doe_]

It’s insane to have a road above one chalk cliff edge, let alone two. The quickest approach would probably be shoring both sides with an angled reinforced concrete wall.

[@circadianizzy]

I wonder if there's a world where they could upgrade the A2260 instead. The bridge it uses looks wide enough for an extra lane or two, and it isn't a huge diversion. Likely not the most cost effective option, and the A296/A2 could be a potential traffic issue (not from the area and have never been, so I wouldn't know), but given the obvious safety concerns on the A226, perhaps this is a potentially safer alternative? You'd end up with some abandoned road to look at as well, and you know we can't get enough of that!

[@swskating3865]

Take the road down to ground level and slope it up to the railway bit. It seems there was a booming trade in the aggregate structure, well, here is some more to sell.😊😊

[@peteraudley5628]

We've had a few collapses in margate . Normally because of southern waters burst pipes 😢

[@Vtarngpb]

Talk about a small disagreement…