Information from Councillor Julian German
Unfortunately the timescale for the road closure has been extended with the likely opening date now being 9th September.
The length of road being renewed has increased and some underpinning of the highway wall towards Tregony will also be carried out.
The road is built on the old river bed and there is a lot of silt under the road and no rock bed at a sensible level to build up from. Therefore a rock mattress has been created using heavy gauge plastic, stones and metal bars. On top of this is a 3mtr deep, 15mtr long section of concrete.
The river has been flumed to allow the works to happen but there has been water ingress from the landward side, so a sump created with the water being pumped over into the Fal. Shuttering has been put riverside and a mass concrete wall created behind. Both ends of the work will then need to be tied into the existing structure and a new road surface laid.
Some will remember the road being raised by a metre or so in the 1960’s due to persistent flooding and the old road surface has been found during the works.
The stream level has lowered over time and the bottom of the original retaining wall is now at the current stream level, this is undercutting some approximately 5metres of retaining wall on the Tregony side of the current works. The bottom of the original retaining wall is now at the current stream level. This will be underpinned. The timescale expected is this will be done in the first week of September and in the second week the traffic will be single file whilst finishing works are completed, so this will take us to Friday 13th September.
Apologies for how long this is taking, I appreciate the frustration that this is causing but you can see that it is a significant amount of work and hopefully it will keep this section of the road in good order for many years to come.