Many people will have noticed the dropped drain grids and intermittent lane closures along the A6 in the last few weeks.

When these problems were first investigated some weeks ago there were found to be unmapped drains running along the road.

Below is the latest unedited update from Council Officers about the ongoing situation.  There is still some more work to be done and there will be some more lane closures and perhaps even an overnight road closure while things are worked on:

Phase 1
Initial inspection found a manhole outside the Civic Hall which was full of silt. This has been cleaned out and surveyed back towards the War Memorial (highway drain running along the footway). This system was then found to be running. The highway drain in the footway was also surveyed and cleaned from Grundey Street to near the War Memorial. It is suspected that there is a system running under the war memorial which drops into the A6 which these two adjoining systems drop onto however, this has not been proven.
The highway drain in the footway was also jetted down to Lever street along with all connecting road gullies and these were found to be running (Lever Street is the head of this system)

Phase 2
Lever Street heading towards Crown Court – All road gullies along this section drop onto the highway drain in the footway. The crews found a buried system in the footway which they undertook a dig on and this was then cleaned out and camera surveyed.
A dig at the junction of Lever Street also took place to try to install an access chamber at this point but this was not possible due to the number and position of utility cables in this area. The highway drain at this point runs into a United Utilities sewer in the road near Vine Street. This has also been cleaned out and cleared.
A section of the carriageway gullies along this stretch have also been reset/replaced.

Phase 3
The gully outside Asda directly opposite the junction of Commercial Road has been cleaned and jetted and the crew report this is now clear and running. To prove the connection, further investigations are required here as it is suspected that the gully appears to run towards one of two manholes in the centre of the carriageway at the junction of Commercial Road on the A6. Ideally we need to arrange with SSK Streetcare to lift these manholes and find the connection and jet back towards the gully but this may have to be done overnight and this needs to be discussed with Traffic Management and SSK with regards to obtaining permission to work. The two gullies outside BetFred at the corner of Commercial Road which we suspect drop onto the same system are now clear and running.

The gullies further down the A6 outside Asda drop onto the highway drain in the footway and this section was found to be running.

The road gullies on the southbound stretch of carriageway from Commercial Road to opposite the junction of Chester Road have all been mapped now and found to be running ok. They all drop onto the United Utilities main sewer in the carriageway along London Road.