Ground under road shut due to sinkhole 'now stable'

The council was first made aware of the sinkhole on 28 July

The ground under a road shut due to a sinkhole that later revealed a collapsed historic culvert is now stable, a council has said.

The hole appeared on the A6015 Hayfield Road at Low Leighton, near the High Hill Road junction, in New Mills, Derbyshire, in July.

Derbyshire County Council took over responsibility of the site and later said it was investigating the culvert, about 16ft (5m) below the road surface.

It found that while part of the culvert has collapsed, "there was no evidence of any soil or gravel spilling into the culvert from the ground above".

The council said it could now plan the next steps to partially reopen the road and "hope to be able to do this later next week, subject to weather conditions".

Site investigation teams have carried out a "thorough" survey of the site

The council said it would carry out "complicated" repairs to the sinkhole and reopen the lane closest to the stone wall to all traffic, including HGVs and buses.

The side of the road immediately over the culvert, a disused underground water channel the council believes is at least 150 years old, will remain shut.

Traffic lights will be in use around the closure while monitoring for ground movement takes place.

Contractors crawled through the area's culverts with cameras to inspect the damage

A spokesperson thanked the community for their patience.

They said: "Our equipment can detect even the tiniest movement - as little as 100th of a millimetre.

"It's difficult at this stage to say how long we'll need to monitor the site, but we are confident one lane of the road can be reopened to traffic.

"If no movement in the ground is detected, we intend to look at options to fill the culvert. This work will require the closure of Hayfield Road, but we will provide full details in advance."

Other nearby culverts, which are a legacy of the area's mining heritage, have also been checked.

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