Rock fall closes main road

The main Bridgnorth to Shrewsbury Road at Much Wenlock was closed off again today after the third landslide since a £300,000 project to stabilise the notorious spot was completed.

About 100 tonnes of rock came crashing down onto the A458 at Harley Bank in the early hours, completely blocking the Shrewsbury-bound carriageway and leaving the opposite side of the road strewn with debris.

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Police sealed off the road after being alerted by a member of the public.

Only last July the then Shropshire County Council carried out a £300,000 improvement scheme to remove 16,000 tonnes of rock in a bid to make Harley Bank more secure but there were two landslides at the site within a week of each other in February.

Council engineers subsequently carried out a detailed survey of the area and concluded that the rockfalls had not been caused by the improvement work.

Phil Crossland, Shropshire Council's assistant director strategic highways and transportation, said: "The A458 at Harley Bank was closed to traffic this morning due to a landslide at 2am. Approximately 100 tonnes of earth has collapsed.

"Traffic is being diverted north on the A458 to Cressage, southeast on the B4380 to Eaton Constantine and Buildwas, southwest on the A4169 to Much Wenlock and vice versa.

"Due to the emergency nature of this closure we are unable to give a time when the road will re-open."

Geo-technical engineers were due to visit the site today to begin investigations.