The road slipped in January 2021, meaning a diversion of around 4 miles for local people and the closure of an important route which was often used during flooding in the lower valley area.
Following detailed investigatory work on the slip and possible solutions, as well as work with local landowners, work started to fix the landslip in June 2024. The work has taken around 6 weeks longer to complete due to challenging and particularly wet weather.
Since the landslip in January 2021 the ground has continued to move, and this posed extra challenges to repair works on site, with movement only stopping recently now that work is substantially complete.
Derbyshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways Assets and Transport, Councillor Charlotte Cupit, said:
“I’m pleased that we have reopened Oker Road. There is still some work to complete around the road, which we will do while the road is open.
“This has been a technically challenging project, because of bad weather, the land continuing to slip and wanting to carry out the most sensitive work in the summer months (but as we know the sun didn’t particular come out on our side this year).
“Thank you to all the highways teams involved in the work, right through from surveying and planning the solution to working on site. Thank you also to local communities for their patience during the inconvenience of the closure and landslip.
“Across Derbyshire, we continue to manage over 200 landslips (hopefully one less now for a while!), which are a particular challenge in our county.
“We have to fully investigate and assess these to inform the right, and often complex, repair. This often takes time, which we know is frustrating to local communities who are impacted, but the reopening at Oker shows we are making progress.
“We continue to make the case to the regional mayor and government of the challenges landslips cause in Derbyshire, the impact they have, and the need for more resources and funding support our work in battling them.”