A465 Heads of the Valley Centre Reserve Wall
The existing A465 was built in the 1960s and is a single three lane carriageway with two lanes in the uphill direction and one in the downhill direction. A regional traffic study in 1990 identified the need to improve this road. This improvement to the A465 is critical to the social and economic regeneration of the Heads of the Valleys area. The width of the road restricts traffic flow and opportunities for safe overtaking. In many areas there is poor visibility. Accidents on this stretch are concentrated around junctions and areas with poor visibility. Reinforced Earth Co. Ltd. (RECo) was approached early in the design stage to develop a solution for the central reserve retaining wall. The wall stretches up the valley floor for a total of 1.5 km. The site geology meant that different solutions needed to be found along the corridor and to minimize excavation into rock. One of the challenges involved building a system around the aesthetic requirements. A unique panel system was created including a bespoke method of support as it was essential that the grooved feature pattern was built to high tolerances. As well as the 6617m² for the central reserve wall a further 4080m² and five structures were designed and manufactured by RECo, one of which incorporates a feature finish which mimics a random rubble stone wall.
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