A POPULAR walking route in one of the most picturesque parts of Powys has reopened today – having been shut off to the public for more than 4 years.
The Devil’s Gulch, located on the Elan Valley trail, just outside Rhayader, was closed for health and safety reasons following a rockfall in November 2018.
Welsh Water confirmed that the highly anticipated repair of the Devil’s Gulch has been completed – even earlier than planned, after it was announced earlier this week that work was set to be completed next month.
The beauty spot, which is popular with walkers and visitors, was reopened to the public today (February 24) after the repair work – thought to have cost over £1 million – was completed weeks ahead of schedule.
Vicky Martin, Welsh Water’s head of visitor attraction strategy, said: “We are pleased to confirm that repair work to the Devil’s Gulch has been completed and the popular route is now open to the public once again.
“We appreciate the inconvenience the closure of the Gulch has caused regular users of this popular route and we would like to thank our customers and the community of Elan Valley for bearing with us while we completed this essential work.
“We’d like to thank our specialist contractor Colin Jones Rock Engineering Ltd for working tirelessly to get this work finished sooner than planned.”
The not-for-profit water company says it has remained committed to repairing the Gulch since it was closed for safety reasons in 2018 due to a rockfall – although work to repair it only began in January this year.
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The complex repair work was carried out by specialist North Wales-based contractors Colin Jones Rock Engineering Ltd.
The work, which started at the beginning of January, involved descaling the rock formation, anchoring and bolting the rock, along with adding rock netting.
Welsh Water, the owners of the Elan Valley estate, have been lobbied constantly over the last four-and-a-half years by nature and environment groups, who have campaigned for the popular walking route to be reopened.
There have been countless delays, with Welsh Water announcing in December that work on the site was finally due to start last month and would be finished sometime in the spring. The Elan Valley announced on its social media channels last weekend that contractors were ahead of schedule to complete the work and the route would be re-opened sometime in early March, so today’s news is a bit of a boost.
Walking group Powys Ramblers have been one of the main campaigners putting pressure on Welsh Water to begin work on the Gulch and get the route back open.
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Graham Taylor, the group’s footpath secretary, wrote an open letter to Welsh Water last November in the face of constant delays in the process – with work originally scheduled to have begun in September 2022.
“Allowances have been made for the inevitable delay arising from Covid but nevertheless 4 years and counting is far too long to wait for it to re-open,” said Graham.
“Earlier this year they said work would start in September. This was then put back to October and then the autumn.
“The latest public note from Welsh Water said there had been funding delays and they were then hoping to be able to start work early in the New Year.”
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