Cumbria County Council is pleased to confirm the B5300 road has reopened today following the completion of large scale emergency repair works at Dubmill Point.
The county council’s highways teams and our contractor have been working around the clock for the past eight weeks to carry out major engineering works on site. They have been faced with some challenging weather conditions and have worked around tides and a number of environmental constraints.
Repair works were needed to protect the B5300 at Dubmill Point after extensive coastal erosion forced the closure of the road on 20 February 2019 to protect public safety.
Works to protect the road have included:
- Removing an existing limestone rock and concrete sea defence wall over a length of 20m, which had failed, leaving the sand dunes susceptible to ongoing erosion and putting the B5300 coast road at risk.
- Constructing new rock armour protection covering around 120m. This rock armour protection will absorb wave energy which would otherwise rapidly erode the sand cliffs
- Resurfacing approx. 250m section of the B5300 with new road markings.
Around 7,500 tonnes of rock – the equivalent of 325 lorry loads – was used to protect the B5300 from coastal erosion. Highway teams and our contractor worked tirelessly night and day, and over weekends and Bank Holidays, to complete the repairs. Specialist plant and machinery were required to do the work, including two 20 tonne excavator machines and an 8 tonne dumper truck.
Given the sensitive location, the county council carried out a number of measures to ensure the works met the environmental requirements of Natural England and the Marine Management Organisation. These included securing a European Protected Species mitigation licence to ensure no disturbance of a habitat of natterjack toads, a protected European species.
Cllr Keith Little, Cumbria County Council Cabinet member for Highways and Transport, said: “The county council has carried out these essential repairs to protect the road from the imminent threat of coastal erosion. I’d like to thank our highways teams and our contractor for the magnificent work they’ve done over the past eight weeks, working long hours in the wind and rain. This has been a challenging operation, working on an environmentally sensitive site, and the result is a massive improvement. I’d like to thank local residents, the travelling public and businesses for their patience while this work has been carried out.”
