A465 Heads of the Valleys road in south Wales (Image: Getty )
A British on it for 23 years – and cost more than £2 billion to fix – is almost complete.
The stretch of A465 Heads of Valleys road in South Wales is only 28 miles long, but if cost estimates are accurate it’s cost more than £70 million per mile to fix.
As well as the road layout works, the reports including more than 40 new bridges and a dozen new junctions, have been built.
Tony Blair was just starting as the British Prime Minister when spades first went into the ground for the project in 1996 near Merthyr Tydfil.
of living with the ongoing roadworks for nearly three decades, one local resident referenced a famous popstar who wrote an iconic song about a nightmare road, saying: “It’s like the road from hell, not even Chris Rea would dare come here.”
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A465 Heads of the Valleys road in south Wales (Image: Getty )
work to convert the A465 into a dual carriageway began in 2002 and has been carried out step by step ever since.
The road links the M4 by Neath with the A40 dual carriageway at Abergavenny and ultimately the midlands of England. The final stage of the project – the section between Hirwaun and Dowlais – began in 2001 and is set for completion this summer.
The new road will be a 70mph dual carriageway with six junctions.
Wales’ transport minister Ken Skates said: “This project is an incredibly impressive piece of engineering and a fantastic example of how targeted investment in road infrastructure can deliver on many levels, providing jobs for the local community, improving accessibility, supporting education and skills, alongside delivering environmental benefits.
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A465 Heads of the Valleys road in south Wales (Image: Getty )
“It’s been a complex project which has not been without its challenges, and I would like to thank everyone who has played their part in helping us to deliver one of the largest road projects in the UK.”
The Welsh Government say the scheme has created more than 2,000 new jobs with over half of those employed living in the local area, employing 158 apprentices with just under half from the valley’s region, helping to support education and skills training.
As well as economic benefits the project has also created a series of environmental benefits, the Welsh Government say.
Species such as the great crested newt and marsh fritillary butterfly have been relocated, and new habitats created for bats, dormouse and lapwing More than 55,000 trees have been planted locally, rising to an expected 120,000 by the end of the programme.