Rolling road blocks could hit Shropshire border routes
Rolling road blocks on the Shropshire/Welsh border over the next 18 months could cause traffic hold-ups.
Major trunk roads, including the A483/A5 from Newtown, through Shropshire and the Oswestry and Chirk bypasses could be affected by abnormal loads taking equipment to a new wind farm in north Wales.
The Clocaenog Forest wind farm will see 27 turbines put up within the forest near the popular Llyn Brenig beauty spot in Denbighshire.
A roads order will come into effect on Thursday which means any of the roads included can be closed to all traffic during a rolling road block except those involved in the transport and emergency vehicles.
Innogy, which is behind the scheme, which will be managed by Natural Resources Wales, has said that there are currently no police escorted deliveries scheduled to take place until the April 29.
Rolling road blocks will be implemented if needed so the parts can get safe passage on abnormal loads.
Prohibit
A Welsh Government (WG) statutory notice said: "The effect of the order will be to temporarily prohibit all vehicles, other than those being used by the emergency services and those which are accompanying the AIL movement, from proceeding along the main carriageways, roundabouts and laybys."
Currently the order is only used for the daily Clocaenog wind farm deliveries on the A483 and A5 from Chester to Pentrefoelas.
A spokesman for the Welsh office said: "The closure timings are agreed between the police forces, the Highway Authority and the hauliers. Each route has different requirements and each route is considered on its own merits."
Innogy says the Clocaenog Forest Wind Farm will have an installed capacity of up to 96 megawatts – enough renewable energy for the equivalent domestic needs of up to 63,800 average UK households per year. It will also provide a community investment fund worth up to £768,000 per annum.
Work began on the site last summer and the project is expected to take between a year and 18 months.
Each turbine blade is 145 metres long and will be transported on the police escorted abnormal loads.
In 2016 a series of abnormal loads travelled along the A5/A483 to a wind farm under construction in Mid Wales.
The Tirgwynt wind farm near Cefn Coch was constructed after a series of planning decisions. Despite the enormous loads regularly being escorted along the roads and through the villages of Pant and Llanymynech near Oswestry there were no major hold-ups during the construction project.
