More work to stop potentially devastating landslides in the Ironbridge Gorge is to get under way next month as part of a multi-million pound scheme.

The latest attempts to stabilise around The Lloyds will help to protect the area for the next 100 years.

The project will see hundreds of huge “piles” being drilled into the ground between the road and the edge of the River Severn.

Rock will also be placed on the river bank to protect it from erosion.

The work is the second stage of the stabilisation of The Lloyds on the northern bank of the river.

Already more piles have been installed along the road itself near Lloyds Cottage in a £3 million stabilisation scheme.

Investigations had shown that the land in this area was slipping more rapidly than anywhere else.

If nothing had been done about it the road would have almost certainly have been lost and the river possibly narrowed.

An extensive search for old mine workings along the route had to be carried out so any “voids” could be filled in as part of the stabilisation work.

And on the southern banks of the river, at Lloyds Head, the car park of the Black Swan pub will be transformed into another picnic area with a lookout platform over the water.

It will mean the closure of the road at Lloyds Head between The Black Swan pub and the crossing gates from April to early 2009.

Telford & Wrekin Council has apologised for the inconvenience caused while these essential works are carried out.

A £1.5 million grant has been committed by the Government Office West Midlands and the rest of the cost, which is not yet known, will be matched by other grants or funded by the council.

Engineers now want to tackle the overgrown banks below The Lloyds, which are inaccessible to the public at the moment.

The steep slope is infested with Japanese knotweed, self-seeded trees and other vegetation.

The undergrowth will be chopped back, the slope reduced and large stone embankments built above the water.

Officers have said that rather than leave it as a semi-private realm, the proposal was to open up the landscape for much wider use.