Firms stay open amid Ironbridge Gorge landslip work

Businesses are urging customers to remember they are still open during major works to stabilise a key part of Shropshires World Heritage Site.

Contractors started the Jackfield Stabilisation Project earlier this year to prevent landslides and try to reduce erosion and the movement of land in the Ironbridge Gorge.

The work consists of 2,000 steel piles being driven into the banks of the River Severn to stabilise the land and halt the land slip.

The scheme aims to stabilise the most active area of ground to allow a new highway to be built which will run between the end of the Tile Museum to near Maws Craft Centre to replace the existing road.

A temporary route leading to businesses in Jackfield has been installed and traders want visitors and residents to remember they are open.

This road will be shifted as stabilisation work progresses on the land surrounding the Maws Craft Centre, an old Victorian tile factory.

Sandra Higson, of Janet & Sandras Craft Shop at the Maws Craft Centre, said: This temporary road has been open since September and it is a lot better than the previous one but we think visitors think the area is closed off. The work needs to be done and we are all supporting this.

Please dont be put off by the works. We are still open for business.

Hundreds of trees have been felled to make way for the main works, which will include earthworks, the treatment of mine workings, piling, river bank protection, drainage, highway work and landscaping.

The overall work will cost a total of 17.6 million with contributions made by the Governments Department for Communities and Local Government which has been part matched by Telford & Wrekin Council and is set to be completed by March 31, 2016.

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Firms stay open amid Ironbridge Gorge landslip work