Baldwin St faces a steep challenge

Welsh gradient to get graded

A WELSH challenge to Dunedin’s claim as the home of the world’s steepest street has begun.

Residents of the small seaside town of Harlech are making a bid for one of their streets, Pen Ffordd Llech, to be named the world’s steepest.

One of the men tasked with surveying the claim, Myrddyn Phillips, told the Otago Daily

Times he and two others would start assessing the claim that the street had a steeper gradient than Baldwin St today. It would take a few days for them to gather all the information needed before it was sent of to the Guinness World Records to assess the claim, he said.

Some of the town’s residents believe Ffordd Pen Llech is 1% steeper than Baldwin St, and they want to knock the current world record holder off its perch.

At its steepest, Baldwin St’s world record gradient stands at 36%, but the Harlech residents claim their street has a gradient of 37%.

Guinness World Records guidelines state that to be eligible for the steepeststreet record, the road must be open to both pedestrians and motorised traffic.

It is also based on the max imum gradient over a ten metre span, comparing the vertical rise to the horizontal distance.

A sign warns the Welsh road is unsuitable for motorists and its steepest part only allows traffic to travel uphill.

A gradient warning sign at the top of the road gives a slope reading of 40%, but it is normal practice for United Kingdom highway authorities to round off gradients to avoid confusion.

It is not the first time Baldwin St has been challenged — a claim in 2016 that St Mary’s Hill in Chester was steeper was dismissed by Guinness because it is inaccessible to vehicles.