A stretch of the A57 Snake Pass in Derbyshire will close next month for four weeks to investigate a new landslip.
The highway authority has said it hopes to re-open another road that has been closed for over two years.
Derbyshire County Council said the Snake Pass will be closed to all users from Doctors Gate to Hagg Farm, a distance of 5.6 miles, from 26 September so specialist contractors can carry out an investigation into the causes of the landslip at Alport.
It added that the contractors will need to use the remaining piece of road at the Alport slip for a drilling rig, so there will be no possibility of any vehicles getting past.
Signs and traffic marshalls will be at either end of the Snake Pass, warning that it will not be possible to get from one side to the other of the major trans-pennine route.
Kewal Singh Athwal, cabinet member for highways assets and transport, said: ‘We do realise that this closure is going to be very inconvenient for all those who use the pass, but we have no choice but to carry out this work.
‘Once this investigation is completed we will work with specialists to find a design solution to this latest landslip, and this will be fully costed.’
The council said that once the investigation is complete the road will re-open, but traffic lights and a weight limit will remain.
The Snake Pass was closed in February following storms Eunice and Franklin. It was re-opened in March, but with a weight limit of 7.5 tonnes. There are traffic lights and a 20 mph speed restriction at the location of all three landslips.
The storms caused three sections of the road surface to drop, in one area by around two metres, leaving major cracks to the road surface and the risk of further landslips.
Image courtesy of Derbyshire CC
Separately Lea Road (pictured), between Cromford and Lea Bridge in the county, has been closed since January 2020 following a landslip caused by heavy rain.
After a number of setbacks, the county council restarted repairs in March. A spokesperson said: ‘Work is progressing nicely and we are still planning to re-open the road by the end of the year providing we don’t get any more landslips.’
