Skip to main content

UK tourist A591 road in Cumbria gets repaired after storm damage

The UK’s A591 road in Cumbria was badly damaged in last December’s storms but recent work on a retaining wall is making life easier for construction crews. The vital Lake District tourist route, which stretches between Grasmere and Keswick, has been closed between St Johns in the Vale and Dunmail Raise following storms Desmond and Eva. A new 106m retaining wall - the length of a football pitch - is being built in the beck alongside the part of the A591 which collapsed during the bad weather. Contractors
June 17, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The UK’s A591 road in Cumbria was badly damaged in last December’s storms but recent work on a retaining wall is making life easier for construction crews. The vital Lake District tourist route, which stretches between Grasmere and Keswick, has been closed between St Johns in the Vale and Dunmail Raise following storms Desmond and Eva. A new 106m retaining wall - the length of a football pitch - is being built in the beck alongside the part of the A591 which collapsed during the bad weather.

Contractors installed steel supporting posts and concrete panels along 35m of the new wall. Stone masons covered the concrete with local stones reclaimed from the flood in an effort to blend the new walls with the surroundings. Concrete was poured behind the concrete panels up to a thickness of 3.5m before a new road surface was laid on top.

At Thirlmere Reservoir, camera surveys of the drains underneath the southern section of the road allowed full repairs to be done. David Pluse, 8100 Highways England’s project manager for the scheme, said photographs from the construction site allowed significant progress on work that was required.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Safety upgrade for Canadian highway
    February 20, 2012
    New machines from Dynapac have played an important role in tackling a stretch of Canadian highway with safety issues. The machines have been used to meet experimental compaction standards specified by highway engineers, so as to withstand Canada's harsh winter conditions. Canadian contractors InterCite Construction and Pavex of St Felicien have used the new Dynapac machines for work on upgrading Route 175, one of Canada's most dangerous highways, located in the Province of Quebec. Route 175 is a 174km long
  • Long-lasting surface repairs for Avonmouth Bridge
    July 9, 2012
    Two technologies combined to give a heavily used bridge a new surface that should last for years The Avonmouth Bridge carries the M5 motorway over the River Avon, and is a vital part of the road infrastructure in south-west England, linking the counties of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall to the rest of the country. Completed in 1973, it carries commuters to the city of Bristol, and to South Wales, along with holidaymakers. The 1.4km long steel box girder bridge comprising a 16,000m2 steel decked central span a
  • Amey trials gully sensors in UK to help prevent road flooding
    November 25, 2016
    Engineering and public services provider Amey is installing state-of-the-art sensors into gullies on UK highways in a trial aimed at preventing the flooding of roads.
  • Amey trials gully sensors in UK to help prevent road flooding
    November 25, 2016
    Engineering and public services provider Amey is installing state-of-the-art sensors into gullies on UK highways in a trial aimed at preventing the flooding of roads.