[Closed] A59 Kex Gill closure

This time it's not the hillside above the road slipping but the road itself. There's a 3m long crack a metre deep in the east bound lane which is also subsiding. They've moved the closure points as the lanes around West End were getting snarled up. If you want to go that way you have to live there or visiting someone who is.

I've been told that the intention is to install temporary traffic lights at the affected spot in time for the Great Yorkshire Show.

The real bummer is that I can't tick off a Veloviewer square which is between the two closure points and the A59 is the only ROW 🙁

Still closed as far as I'm aware. Traffic through Ilkley suggests that too. I think they were working towards next week, but it's a tricky thing to sign off as safe.

Rather than drag all the way on the official diversion, you can drive up as far as the Otley turn off next to Fewston Reservoir, then head south on that to pick up the Ilkley road.

The real bummer is that I can’t tick off a Veloviewer square which is between the two closure points and the A59 is the only ROW

Would have thought now was the moment! Approach from the Simon's Seat moor and enjoy the fp running down the valley opposite the road...

Annoyingly neither that footpath nor the bridleway following the old turnpike road are in the square!

If you haven't done that BW I'd get it done as I think that's going to be the line of any new road - there have been crews taking soil column samples in the area.

Stray FM reported this week that it might be open much sooner - i.e. in days - with temp traffic lights. Sodding typical, as we'd planned to take a group riding up Beasley Bank on Saturday, taking advantage of the empty road for something a bit different. Be just my luck if, for the first time, the council pull their finger out and fix it when I just needed it shut for a couple more days!

There is a sneaky way around the closure but it seems to be patrolled by highways agency folk.  I go walking up at Thruscross and always have to explain why I want to drive around the "blocked" sneaky route.

The really dry weather can’t be helping - at the end of the day they need to be sure it’s safe before they open it as some big vehicles use that road.

Yep, still blocked. I live in Harrogate and work in Skipton sometimes. Go via Grassington and Greenhow hill rather than Ilkley about an hour each but much more scenic and free flowing.

I live in Skipton and work in Harrogate so obviously this is ace. Rumour is it’ll be open on traffic lights in the next few days before another blockage after the Yorkshire Show.

This morning the traffic in to Ilkley was queuing up to the addingham roundabout at 9.15.

Kex Gil has been stuffed for years, just build a new f*****g road, how hard can it be? It’s a ditch in the middle of nowhere where no one goes to admire the view. Ffs.

Latest update suggests it won’t reopen for a while yet

Link to Stray FM post regarding continued closure: https://www.strayfm.com/news/local-news/2621485/a59-at-kex-gill-not-expected-to-open-next-week/

On the other hand it sounds like this latest closure may just be the factor that tips NYCC into building the replacement route https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/a59-kex-gill-re-alignment

The problem is that the A59 has, like many other major roads, been downgraded from a Trunk road. Why is this a problem? Well it determines where the money for major works comes from. If it's a Trunk road then the money comes from central government's pot, i.e. Highways England,  otherwise it comes from the local highways authority, in this case NYCC. Guess who has funding cuts?

Local news reports from the closure last year indicated that central government were minded to financially support any work, whether that remains the case when it comes to putting pen to cheque we shall see.

Following @fatoldgit's second link suggests that the proposed route follows an old turnpike road that is now BW. Like I said in an earlier post, best get this ridden before it's upgraded to dual carriageway!

To be perfectly honest that bridalway isn't worth any effort unless you're already there, with a little luck, the current road will be closed and classified bridalway when the new one (if) opens and it won't be any real loss, if anything the current blubberhouses road will actually make for a better route, especially if it keeps disintegrating.

Utterly daft to follow the line of the hill that side though and not use the existing road way at kex gill. I'd love to know that thought process "we've got a road which runs on the edge of a hill and keeps falling down, lets move it to a different edge instead of the [opposite] top"

Only reason for riding that bridleway is to get back down into Washburn valley after a cheeky ride over Rocking Stones moor,

or, picking the geocache that used to be half way down it ( not sure if it’s still there )

@dangourbrain - I think it's that the south side of the gill is prone to subsidence but not the north, I'd have to have a look at a geological map and/or report to be sure. A quick google suggests that the water table is close to the surface and has a tendency to pool (presumably within or just below the surface material).

The BW comment was a bit tongue-in-cheek 😉

You couldn't make it up: the blokes at either end of the current closure preventing you from going along the road are known as ... "Ambassadors"!!!

Gloriously happy with the delay - our planned ride along the empty A59 tomorrow is on! One should always trust the council to be late when it comes to roadworks 🙂

(I accept that this might be a slightly selfish view, based on the misery of people queuing in Ilkley this week! Hopefully, it will reopen next weekend as planned)

@dangourbrain – I think it’s that the south side of the gill is prone to subsidence but not the north,

Thing is, there would have to be a really good reason surely for not using the existing roadway (which takes all the quarry traffic so can't be too fragile) and instead, building a new section of road along the side of a steep slope that'll need bridging at the end etc?

The only reasons i can come up with are - (A) Don't inconvenience the quarry traffic with the inevitable temporary closure to join the two roads and (B) make it prohibitively expensive so we do nothing.

It's always easier to build an entirely new road and then link it in to the existing road network than it is to upgrade an existing road. At a guess the original road/track now followed by the A59 through Kex Gill was just dug into the hillside and might not have adequate foundations. This wouldn't be unusual - the old A590 across Lyth Valley is sat on bundles of birch so that it floats on the moss! When they came to build the new road they decided to install piles as support. Well until initial drilling revealed that there was no support for 90 metres!

Modern traffic just hammers these old roads, they just weren't designed for 40 tonne lorries and 2 tonne cars.

I'm not sure why they can't do something similar to what they did on the Bingley bypass and support that section on stilts. Oh, yes. cost.

A closer look at the proposed map and it doesn't actually follow the bw either, just crosses it either end.

We could end up with North Yorkshire's version of the Broken Road up Mam Tor.