If you have been avoiding Alan Turing Way in Manchester since March, then you’ll be happy to find out there is now a reopening date on the horizon. Manchester City Council said it expects to finish the repairs to the 50m-deep mine shaft under the road by mid-December, though bad weather or problems during the work could push that back.
A void opened up beneath the northbound section in March, and the council partially closed the road. Specialists have since found an unrecorded mine shaft about 3m across and 50m deep. East Manchester has a long mining history, but the council says incidents like this are fairly uncommon. The source of the damage is isolated, and there is no further danger of collapse on this road.
The five phases of repairing Alan Turing Way
Phase 1: making the shaft safe (complete). Work began on 17 September after intrusive ground investigations. Crews pumped in more than 100 tonnes of grout, a cement-based material that fills underground gaps and stabilises the surrounding ground. They finished in early October.
Phase 2: reinforced concrete cap (ongoing). Since 12 October, crews have been installing a reinforced concrete slab over the shaft. It forms a permanent structural seal and spreads loads from the road surface above.
Phase 3: lightweight concrete fill. Once the new base is in place, crews will add a lightweight concrete layer to strengthen the repair before the excavation is filled.
Phase 4: filling the void. Crews will fill the remaining space beneath the road in carefully planned stages. Water, telecommunications and internet infrastructure run through the area, so the council will work with the utility providers to protect those services. Some water and telecoms companies will also need to carry out work on their own equipment.
Phase 5: rebuilding and reopening. When the underground repairs are complete and the area is confirmed safe, crews will rebuild the affected stretch of road. The northbound carriageway will reopen as soon as that work is finished and it is safe to do so.
What Manchester City Council says
Councillor Mandie Shilton Godwin, Executive Member for Clean Air, Environment and Transport, thanked residents and local businesses for their patience during the investigations. “No one could have anticipated the scale of the void that we found,” she said, adding that the council’s effort went into making the site safe so the road could reopen.
