One Trafford continues to monitor Covershaw Lane in Partington

Covershaw Lane in Partington was closed for well over a year because a very small sinkhole opened up in March 2024, just a day before the Trafford 10k running event was due to start.

The council told us that they have been in contact with the Environment Agency, farmers, and others to look at the sinkhole to assess the damage and how dangerous things are underneath. It was then confirmed as a slippage of silty sand which left voids. Had it been left, more sinkholes would have happened and could have been much bigger.

Having asked through FOI (Freedom of Information), the council told us they had allocated £75k initially to fix the road, and a further £100k was needed. It seemed like a bit of a rip-off to many people when all that was seen was some stones thrown in a now man-made square hole and a couple of crash barriers.

We have asked Trafford Council under Freedom of Information again about the costs of the sinkhole, and oddly they came back to us saying, “At this stage, the information is not available as some invoices from the supply chain are still outstanding, so an exact cost cannot yet be provided.”

The sinkhole was fixed with sheet piles, which makes sense; it is expected these sheet piles were steel. It is not known if these sheet piles were temporary or the permanent type, or how the sheet piles were installed. This would help us give a better estimation of both cost and if the road doesn’t cave in again.

One Trafford did the site surveys and investigations as they have people who deal with such issues, so the cost would have been kept lower. However, if they called for assistance from a third party, this would have increased the cost.

It is likely the survey would have included Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT), and microgravity to assess the situation accurately under the road and on top of it. If One Trafford did not have this equipment, they would have needed to hire it out with a specialist surveyor.

The concerning answer to one of our questions came last, and that was One Trafford is continuing to monitor the road. This put doubts in people’s minds that they have only patched up the road and are hoping for the best.

It was all the rain and the Calderwell Brook that goes by the side of the road that was flooded many times that caused the slippage underneath. If this is only a temporary fix, then the same thing could happen again, if not at that part of the road, but elsewhere, and the probabilities of the road being closed for another year or so could happen again.