The perilous future which faces the infamous Snake Pass

The infamous route between Manchester and Sheffield, through Derbyshire, is in a precarious position

Officials have painted a perilous picture about the future of the infamous Snake Pass route between Manchester and Sheffield through the Derbyshire Peak District. One of the highest roads in the UK, Snake Pass poses a persistent logistics and resource headache for Derbyshire County Council, with the isolated weather-hit route constantly moving, having been built on historic shale landslip deposits.

It is often the first route to close and last to reopen each winter due to bouts of snow on the higher reaches of the peaks, with laborious diversions then required for the vital thoroughfare between two of the UK’s major cities, used by 30,000 vehicles a week. On a visit to the route this week, Julian Gould, the council’s highways director, and Cllr Charlotte Cupit, cabinet member for highways assets and transport, outlined the challenges the authority faces and what it is aiming to do within its constrained resources.

They detail that the route is in a constant state of slipping, with “interventions” now needed more frequently than ever before, now down to six to 12 months from a previous typical gap of eight years, due to increasing bouts of heavy rain caused by climate change. With the council constrained by a highways capital budget of £27 million per year, which needs to cover the whole county, Snake Pass solutions are not able to be as effectively permanent as would be preferred.

There are currently two sets of temporary traffic lights on the 12-mile Snake Road section of the route, at Gillott Hey and Alport, with significant damage at both sites, particularly at Alport, along with further damage at Wood Cottage. Driving along the Wood Cottage section of the route now mimics an extended series of speed bumps, with the road limited to 30mph due to widespread rippling.

A 7.5-tonne weight restriction remains in place on the route to reduce the strain on the slipping surface, with no imminent end in sight for that restriction until major improvements can be made. The Snake Pass route will be temporarily closed again from October 14-25 for surface repairs to the Gillott Hey and Alport landslip sections.

This will involve raised sections of the rippling road being trimmed off and a new top layer being added, in a tentative bid to avoid adding more weight to the under-pressure route. Cllr Cupit and Mr Gould are clear that these are stop-gap repairs for what is really needed for the current slips, but it is all the council is able to fund with its own budget battles to consider.

Lobbying requests have been made to central Government and to the new East Midlands Mayor for a potential “landslip fund” with Cllr Cupit saying there is clearly a “unique” problem in Derbyshire, with the council facing 200 landslips across the county, with three particularly problematic ones. A long-term fix for the Alport landslip alone would cost “hundreds of millions of pounds” says Mr Gould, which the council will never be able to fund and will hinge on Government intervention.

Cllr Cupit and Mr Gould are clear that they would like to keep the route open but that a “cataclysmic” landslip, which would be near-impossible to fund or fix, could never be ruled out. Meanwhile, a pie in the sky £12 billion conceptual plan for a 25-mile Trans-Pennine Tunnel, initially mooted in 2016 by the Sheffield City Mayor in 2016, has not been forthcoming.

Mr Gould said: “Not knowing the specific details of the Pennine Tunnel I am sure if it was carried out properly it could give some benefits but I am not sure it would negate the need for this cross-Pennine route but I would need to look at it in more detail. It is not something we have particularly considered because it is not something that is immediately available to us, but anything that gives relief to this route would be welcome.”

Mr Gould said: “The period between interventions is now less and less. It won’t be sustainable long term without significant intervention but county councils can’t fund that level of intervention.” He said if the interventions were needed every few weeks – instead of nearly annually – the council would need to change tack significantly, but it has not yet reached that point."

A relatively minor but more long-term fix for the Alport landslip to strengthen the land with long steel piles, would cost up to £4 million, he says, but he and the council will never be able to predict “when the big movements are going to happen”. Hundreds of millions would be needed for a full repair and the landslip at Gillott Hey would need tens of millions again,” Mr Gould said.

At Gillott Hey, the crash barriers for the road itself are slipping down the hillside. Brackets holding up the infrastructure, which are supposed to point upwards, now lean backwards and sideways. Mr Gould said: “Long-term these fixes are not cost-effective. We are doing our best to manage it within the constraints of the budget we have got and are doing our best to retain access.

“We can’t rule out the possibility that it could be closed. If there was a major landslip it would be beyond what we can do and central or regional funding would be needed. It would take a significant operation to stop the road moving and all we can look to do at the moment is to slow down the movement.”

Residents have often feared the route will go the way of the former road along Mam Tor, which slipped off the hillside and was too costly to repair. It subsequently abandoned in 1977, leaving the well-known Winnats Pass as the only route through the surrounding hills. Mr Gould says Snake Pass is not a “dissimilar situation” but that issues at Mam Tor were more logistically difficult with water moving under the site 30 metres down, and without the technical interventions which are now available.

He said: “We haven’t seen movement of that scale to date.” A major intervention on the route would see a potential six-month closure of Snake Pass, he said, with retained access to be difficult due to the intensive nature of the required works.

Mr Gould is mindful of the impact on the route from construction vehicles and machinery themselves while carrying out repair works, saying this is carefully monitored and considered. Cllr Cupit says the case for Government intervention should hinge on works to the Snake representing a regeneration and economic growth project, as opposed to just road improvement.

She said: “We wouldn’t look to close the road but we can’t rule out one of those cataclysmic situations. It is part of our strategic road network because it is the major route between Manchester and the Peak District.

“Separate to the landslips is the challenge of maintaining the route in the winter, closing it and digging it out in the snow is a significant challenge. Some councils may not have any landslips and we have had four on this route at one time and have 200 across the county, making it extremely challenging to carry out repairs.”

Asked about the political implications of lobbying for such extensive sums of required money when the Government is actively reviewing existing planned schemes to potentially scrap, Cllr Cupit said: “I represent Derbyshire so that is the priority for me and it is for me to make the case regionally and countrywide for Derbyshire. We have a pretty unique situation of not just Snake Pass but also have over 200 landslips, at varying scales, and we have our wider highway network, with our challenging geology, so to me Derbyshire does have an exceptional case that it needs this funding.”

She says Derbyshire is home to many quarries which provide material for construction schemes across the UK, presenting another reason as to why major routes – such as the Snake – into and out of the county should be a priority for upkeep and a “special case for investment”.

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