Following the recent heavy rain, Cheshire East Council is investigating what can be done to prevent two major local roads from flooding every time we suffer periods of heavy rain.
The £290m A555 Manchester Airport Relief Road, which opened in October 2018, and the £52m Alderley Edge Bypass (Melrose Way), which opened in November 2010, have both been closed on several occasions in recent months due to flooding.
Members of the Environment and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee were provided with an update on the flood recovery works being carried out at their meeting on Monday, 11th November.
Cheshire East Highways have been investigating the cause of the problems on the new airport relief road and Melrose Way, both of which were closed in July, October and, most recently, last week.
These investigations include an utilities survey, environmental survey and pump assessments. They have also been looking at proposed enhancement work and are awaiting approval following the completion of pump assessments.
Paul Traynor, head of highways at Cheshire East Council, told committee members "Both roads are designed to what is effectively your current design standards, but clearly they are not a one in 30 year storm.
"We are now looking at what enhancement we can take to cope with this volume of water and the volumes they are being asked to discharge."
He added "They are ongoing, it is a process."
Cllr Peter Groves said "We spent a huge amount of time and money dealing with potholes, and we have seen a substantial reduction in half year claims for damage, in light of the flooding should we now be concentrating on gulley clearing and dealing with flooding. Certainly we now see more complaints about dealing with blocked gullies than we do about potholes."
So far Cheshire East Highways have cleared 6672 gullies across Poynton, Adlington, Bollington and Ketleshulme. They have 1024 remaining in their recovery schedule to be completed by the end of November in Wilmslow, Handforth, Prestbury, Mottram St Andrew, Rainow, Pott Shrigley, and Lyme Handley.
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Another consideration: .. a friend nearby in Macc has recently had to renew house insurance with a massive loading on the policy for being in an area susceptible to flooding...(that he was not previously aware of ) If he had known he wouldn't have bought the place...
Wonder how this risk / loading will sit with the continued building in the immediate vicinity of recent repeat floods ??
I also note from recent news broadcasts some areas in Lincs Yorks etc cannot get building insurance for the same reason.