Work still needs to be done to stabilise Ironbridge Gorge, says council

Telford &Wrekin Council needs £60 million to secure more areas of the World Heritage Site, as part of its ongoing programme to protect the area from future landslips.

A total of £17million has already been spent on the major Jackfield Stabilisation, which has secured a huge section of land.

In the past, about a metre of land was washed away each year.

But Telford & Wrekin Council engineer Colin Pitcher said: "We are delighted to say that we've actually slowed that movement down to a matter of a few millimetres a year and hopefully this area will be come stable for generations of Telford residents and tourists."

The initial work to stabilise the land finished in September2015, but the area has remained a building site for many more months as contractors McPhillips of Wellington completed other essential works.

The £17.6m work has included the treatment of mine workings underground in the area.

There has been piling to create reinforcements under the land as well as river bank protection to prevent further erosion.

There has been drainage of water from the land to prevent anything that may cause future land movement, and a new highway has been built between the end of the Tile Museum to near Maws Craft Centre to replace the existing road and landscaping.

Now hundreds of trees have been planted on the land to return it to normal.

But Telford & Wrekin Council spokesman Russell Griffin said it is only the start of work in the Gorge in future.

He said: "We are constantly lobbying for funding to do more stabilisation work in the future."

In recent years, stabilisation works have been needed on Jiggers Bank, which leads into Coalbrookdale.

A stretch of road across the river from the stabilisation works in Jackfield was also closed to secure the overhanging rock face which had become loose.

It has also now been revealed that Jackfield Stabilisation Project won the top prize at the Institution of Civil Engineering (ICE) Awards.

It won the Geotechnical award category at last night’s awards ceremony at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham and was also declared overall winner out of 26 projects across the West Midlands, as well as projects from as far afield as New Zealand and Turkey

The Jackfield Stabilisation Project now goes through as the regional entry for the ICE People’s Choice national award to be judged by public vote in November 2017.

Mr Griffin said: "We will be running a campaign later in the year to encourage people to vote and we hope to win nationally."