Snake Pass - will it ever be fixed?
Discussion
Not wanting to drag the “pothole repair that lasted 9 days” thread too much off-topic, I was wondering if anyone local to the area (Sheffield, Bamford, Glossop etc.) knows anything about plans to fix the Snake Pass?
Without wanting to go into excessive detail here, there’s an active landslide in the Alport Bridge area, which keeps moving and has made the road unsafe due to large cracks, subsidence, collapse. Since I moved here in 2008 and started using the road regularly, it’s been repaired multiple times, and most recently, within 3 months of it being repaired (May 2023) a further landslide caused a section to fall away (August 2023) which has been narrowed down to single lane ever since.
I suspect it’s not really feasible in the long term to preserve a main road on the north side of the Ashop Valley and a proper long term plan would probably require a major infrastructure project to re-route the road (possibly onto the other side of the valley where the land is more stable). I don’t see that ever happening so I am starting to suspect this will go the way of the old Castleton to Chapel-en-le-Frith Road.
Maybe the plan is to “de-grade” the Snake Pass to a minor road and direct all traffic along the Woodhead? It’s already got a semi-permanent 7.5T restriction on it.
Does anyone know? Or care? I was just interested. I can’t find anything online more recent than the last collapse in August, but I’m interested to know what the plan might be. Given that the Mottram Bypass still hasn’t happened after being mooted for 20+ years I won’t be holding my breath for a major upgrade!!
Without wanting to go into excessive detail here, there’s an active landslide in the Alport Bridge area, which keeps moving and has made the road unsafe due to large cracks, subsidence, collapse. Since I moved here in 2008 and started using the road regularly, it’s been repaired multiple times, and most recently, within 3 months of it being repaired (May 2023) a further landslide caused a section to fall away (August 2023) which has been narrowed down to single lane ever since.
I suspect it’s not really feasible in the long term to preserve a main road on the north side of the Ashop Valley and a proper long term plan would probably require a major infrastructure project to re-route the road (possibly onto the other side of the valley where the land is more stable). I don’t see that ever happening so I am starting to suspect this will go the way of the old Castleton to Chapel-en-le-Frith Road.
Maybe the plan is to “de-grade” the Snake Pass to a minor road and direct all traffic along the Woodhead? It’s already got a semi-permanent 7.5T restriction on it.
Does anyone know? Or care? I was just interested. I can’t find anything online more recent than the last collapse in August, but I’m interested to know what the plan might be. Given that the Mottram Bypass still hasn’t happened after being mooted for 20+ years I won’t be holding my breath for a major upgrade!!
AFAIK it's an issue that will require a substantial cash input to solve once and for all and that cash simply isn't available though I haven't found any recent news either. It's ridiculous that road and rail routes between two major cities are so poor but it is 'oop norf' I suppose and out of sight, out of mind...
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