The A40 Safety Group have highlighted the chaos that may erupt following the investigation of the rockfall on the A40 to Ross at the Leys Bend.

Andy Smith, chair of the group, told the Beacon that National Highways (NH) have “distributed a letter and map recently explaining what they are doing to investigate the Leys Bend rockfall on the A40. I received this in advance and pointed out that their map directed HGVs to Monmouth and then offered them no diversion route, leaving them to repeat the SatNav chaos that happened when the rockfall onto the A40 occurred. Despite the warning, that map was widely distributed,” he added.

The upper carriageway is being closed to allow contractors to conduct a detailed survey above the road. The drainage under the road around Leys Bend will not be covered in that survey. A stream ran in the Leys Bend valley and the A40 was built across it on a 10m high embankment cutting straight across the former bend. The old road still loops around the contour in that valley which drains the recently deforested surrounds and the permanent ponds on the hilltop.

Andy explained that very few records of the road construction survive so there is no record of the extent of drainage actually installed when the road was built. Some were located by the A40 Safety Group in the weeks following the rockfall. They reported its condition and the fact it was carrying no water, leading to concern about the stability of the carriageways adding many professional reports since the road was built “have stressed the importance of monitoring underground water pressures and maintaining the drainage.”

The group pointed out that water draining into the Leys Bend gulley has been passing under the embankment in an uncontrolled way for several years. The 2021 collapse of the riverside path directly below Leys Bend may be related to this, as may the rockfall onto the upper carriageway last February. The current contractor is only surveying the stability of the hillside above the road stating that drainage is not an issue.

Requests to extend the survey to include the area beneath the road and the stability of the carriageway itself have been ignored. Five previous contractors have stressed the importance of groundwater and drainage to the stability of the hillside and the road itself.

Despite recent unprecedented rainfall, the drains are still not flowing. Over the summer, more than a thousand trees in the Leys Bend valley were felled “using heavy machinery that crushed exposed rock on the steep sides of the valley, encouraging runoff and ground movement,” said Andy.

The two recent landslides provide compelling evidence of instability both above and beneath the road.

The A40 Safety Group maintains that it is essential to ensure that drainage under the road is both known and controlled, as was intended when it was built.

“We are concerned that the heavy load imposed on the lower carriageway when it carries traffic in both directions during this winter’s contraflow exercise could stress the roadbed beyond its limits,” he added.

“The Leys Bend section of that carriageway collapsed several times during construction and there is no detailed record of what corrections were made. No one knows how stable that road is today and the planned survey is not designed to find out.

“The contractor has blamed the expensive delay in assessing the hillside above the A40 on the presence of dormice and bats. Dormice are important but it seems bizarre that their safety is prioritised over identified risks to people using the road."

National Highways Route Manager, Joseph Walmsley, said:“We have a team of geologists and other specialists who have been, and will continue to, investigate the causes of the rockfall at Leys Bend. These comprehensive investigations will fully inform planning for any future actions.

"We will continue to work with the A40 Safety Group as the scheme progresses to discuss their concerns and hopefully provide some reassurance. However, evidence from our monitoring activities since the 1960s does not support many of the concerns raised by the A40 Safety Group.”