The study of British and Irish roads - their construction, numbering, history, mapping, past and future official roads proposals and general roads musings.
There is a separate forum for Street Furniture (traffic lights, street lights, road signs etc).
Registered users get access to other forums including discussions about other forms of transport, driving, fantasy roads and wishlists, and roads quizzes.
My journey timing couldn't have been worst for photos! ... dusk and raining.
But still some interesting happenings on the construction.
The footbridge on the hill has been removed and temp. semi-permanent lights installed. there are 3 new roundabouts along the works.
Overall it doesn't look like a lot of construction has been done since my last visit but... look a bit deeper and the scale of the works in this section is impressive. It is so impressive there are 3 year college courses on road construction and related subjects running on the site .
Now would be a good time for a visit as most of the clearing has been done but little of the carriageways constructed or even formed...but the base work for the cuttings and flyover and gorge works well underway.
The photo's here are in order from Byrnmawr to gilwern.
I'm quite impressed at the scale of the construction works over there. Trying to plonk a high quality road on a hillside was never going to be easy.
It'll be a joy to drive out to West Wales on that route one it is done. Hopefully it'll take a bit more strain off the M4 too.
Tony Alice (they,them)
~~~~~
Owner of a classic rust heap/money pit, and other unremarkable older vehicles.
Usually found with a head in an old map or road atlas.
Did you know there's more to SABRE than just the Forums?
Add your roads knowledge to the SABRE Wiki today!
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Ask me if you want to get involved!
The elevation rise in this section is around 235m or nearly 800'... and when completed the A465 will rise from 59m to 409m- a 1,300' climb . must, going to, be in the top 10 for UK dual carriageway rises/falls
I managed to take a drive through a couple of weeks ago. Not only am I impressed with the scale of what is happening there, I'm also impressed in the "pride" which they appear to be taking with the actual works themselves.
All the temporary signs are generally very clear, easy to read, in a good condition and well placed, I'm impressed that for the temporary roundabouts that have been created they have even gone as far as to make proper green signs, with the correct number of exits shown.
It just feels well managed, which seems to be common for works in Wales.
Since it's a sunny bank holiday Monday I thought I'd get some photos of this project from up the hill. Other than a few key sites, there's not actually that much to see, but I think this will be a good vantage point once the second carriageway begins to take shape.
It says there will be a total of five temporary roundabouts. These are to provide turning for construction traffic, reducing congestion.
AAndy wrote:Some photos of the Gilwern GSJ progress taken heading from Gilwern East towards Abergavenny. Could this be partly opened in a couple of months?
The newsletter also confirms traffic will be transferred to the new carriageway above the junction this summer.
Thanks for the link Jeremai.... interesting read although a bit short on detail. They mention about how the wet weather has hampered the construction....and it has been a very wet 8 months....but it is visible progressing a lot now.
The first steel was craned in yesterday for the flyover/bridge at clydach.... impressive.
Apologies if these links have been posted on SABRE already and I missed them, but have just come across these Welsh Government 'virtual reality' videos covering Section 2 of the A465 'Heads of the Valleys' rebuild:
A465 dualling gilwern to brynmawr gilwern gsj march 2016 c by Dskies, on Flickr
A465 dualling gilwern to brynmawr gilwern gsj march 2016 d by Dskies, on Flickr
A465 dualling gilwern to brynmawr gilwern gsj march 2016 b by Dskies, on Flickr
A465 dualling gilwern to brynmawr gilwern gsj march 2016 a by Dskies, on Flickr
A465 dualling gilwern to brynmawr gilwern gsj march 2016 e by Dskies, on Flickr
A465 dualling gilwern to brynmawr gilwern gsj march 2016 f by Dskies, on Flickr
A465 dualling gilwern to brynmawr gilwern gsj march 2016 g by Dskies, on Flickr
A465 dualling gilwern to brynmawr gilwern gsj march 2016 h by Dskies, on Flickr
