Is this the last Welsh Road?

Yesterday evening the Institution of Civil Engineers Wales, West Wales and Swansea City Club had a wonderful site visit to the ongoing A40 Project Llanddewi Velfrey to Redstone Cross improvements. Hosted by Main Contractor Griffiths (now part of Tarmac where I started my career) it was a real eye opener in terms of complexity and scale for what is only a 6km section of 2+1 road. Another touch point is the designer is Jacobs who acquired CH2M a company I worked for in my later career.

Amidst a climate emergency the recent Wales roads review has cancelled several major roads building projects and indicated that any future?schemes shouldn't result in increased road capacity for cars and should focus on "shifting trips to sustainable transport to reduce carbon emissions" among other aims. Basically, the message is…get active and get on your bicycle! We should all support net zero goals, but this also needs to be balanced with driving economic growth with infrastructure being a key enabler. Arguably the A40 project supports the Celtic Freeport as the rationale behind the freeports extends beyond the port itself. Infrastructure, such as road and rail?transport?links will need?enhancement. The A40 project supports this and will make it easier to access the Celtic Freeport covering the Milford Haven Waterway. But with no new roads connecting South-West Wales and Milford Haven with the rest of the country there will be a bottle neck somewhere.

But what about the declared nature emergency in Wales. Whilst the project had a strong focus on social values and has incorporated mammal passes (dormice, otters, foxes, badges, bats were mentioned during the visit) I can’t help thinking about the mass destruction of ancient woodland within the road boundary. Any mammal would have long scarpered, and the mitigation replacement trees are only a few foot tall. I am sure many alternative schemes where reviewed but following the existing road alignment possibly with more calming, pavements and compulsory purchase orders would have minimised the habitat destruction and overall, a better net zero result. Let’s also not forget the greenhouse gas emissions produced in the road construction, maintenance, and operation. The site was full of heavy construction equipment running on diesel.

Turning to construction the A40 project is an engineer’s dream and full of difficult terrain challenges with bogs, major cut and fill sections, roundabouts, junctions, overbridges, culverts, and underpasses. The team led by Andrew Davies has all this in hand but its not without its challenges from ecology to archaeology to social to re-design, to cost and time. The last time I pulled up to the Narberth Roundabout with my wife she asked me…” what is going on here”. I said …” it’s just a new road”. Little did I know that out of sight are major cut and fill operations and drainage to achieve the ideal road alignment.

A big thank you to the team at Griffiths in particular Adam Bateman for arranging and hosting the visit. I was particularly impressed by the stakeholder engagement and STEM activities that will hopefully encourage the next generation of engineers.

Stay safe and good luck for an autumn 2024 completion.?