Major A435 route will be closed for months

A MAJOR route through Gloucestershire will shut for months next year as part of a multi-millionpound project to save a road damaged by years of landslips, which have caused it to be partially sectioned off for the last eight years.

The A435 connecting Cheltenham and Cirencester will close for the majority of 2023, from March to October, while work is carried out on the land underneath the road, which has subsided and caused sections of the left-hand lane between Charlton Kings and the Seven Springs roundabout to crack and become hazardous.

The £3.5 million project is jointly funded by Gloucestershire County Council and the Department for Transport. This work is to be carried out on the left-hand “crawler lane” of the Charlton Hill stretch of the A435, which has been sectioned off since 2014 when landslips first caused the road to crack. This entire stretch of the A435 will also be resurfaced after the work is completed. This lane is adjacent to the sloping embankment of the Lilley Brook river, landslips toward which have caused four separate sections of the route to shift, crack, and become unsafe for road users.

Despite resurfacing and patching works, the connecting route has continued to be affected by slips in this embankment.

The works have been scheduled to begin in March after the Cheltenham Festival, and is scheduled to end just before the Prestbury’s racecourse’s November meet.

During this eight-month stretch next year, parts of the route will be closed off to pedestrians and cyclists, as well as normal road traffic. Highways are arranging a public drop-in session in 2023 to explain the changes in greater detail to local residents.