Building Work On UK’s ‘road From Hell’ Set To Finally End After 23 Years

Locals have claimed works on the expansive Swansea to Monmouthshire route has caused financial decline, and created “hell” for the communities it has been built around

The A465 Heads of the Valleys project was created off the back of a Thatcherite upgrade drive (Image: John Myers)

Building work on a stretch of tarmac dubbed the “road from hell” is set to finally end this year – more than two decades after it was ordered off the back of a Thatcherite upgrade programme.

The A465 Heads of the Valleys project was launched in 2002 during Tony Blair’s time in Number 10, but was planned a dozen years earlier in 1990 under Margaret Thatcher’s conservative government. The stretch of motorway was designed to run 28 miles and link Swansea to Monmouthshire, ideally bringing prosperity to historically deprived areas.

But the £2 billion project has not been smooth sailing, with locals left frustrated by 23 years worth of works that have plagued the area and created the “road from hell”. Now they have some cause to rejoice, as work on the twisting highway which files through several neighbourhoods appears set to conclude.

The works began in 2002, during Tony Blair’s premiership ( Image:

WalesOnline/Rob Browne) The last 23 years have seen more than tarmac laid over the nearly 30 miles between Swansea and Monmouthshire, with six massive sections of works ordered over the area. The sections were completed in stages, from most to least dangerous for drivers, and crews completed 60 structures along the route.

Among them were around 40 new bridges and up to a dozen new junctions, with 285,000 trees planted as the works continued to offset the massive amount of CO2 the route is expected to generate per year. A massive effort was also launched to relocate local animals, including bats, dormice and great crested newts that typically reside in the area.

Human residents, however, have been forced to get to grips with the disruptive building, with one man from Merthyr Tydfil, a Welsh town affected by works on the expansive route, said famed Brit rocker and “Road to Hell” singer Chris Rea would even give the stretch a miss. He told the BBC : “It’s like the road from hell. Not even Chris Rea would dare come here.”

The works also included a series of bridges and junctions ( Image:

WalesOnline/Rob Browne) Other locals told the broadcaster that the works have had a knock-on effect on trading in the region, causing shop owners to lose business as people are put off from coming into nearby towns.

Paula Owen, the owner of Paula’s Boutique in St Tydfil Shopping Centre, blamed the works for her business losing 50 percent of its trade. She said: “It puts people off coming to town as they’re in the queues for so long, it’s blinking terrible and it has really affected us. With impact of Covid, the cost of living crisis and this, it’s been hard.”

Now, she added, she is hopeful that the completed road will “make a big difference”. Speaking to Sky News, local councillor David Hughes said the road improvements would be “good for the community”, adding the complete route would “hopefully will bring more employment and more work into the area”.