2,000 tonne works will enable Vale road to reopen

A section of L’Epine Quarry collapsed last year to such an extent that it put the adjacent Rue de L'Epine in danger if further landslips were to have happened – which is why the road was closed.

Guernsey Water said: "Since then, we’ve been hard at work putting together a plan to fix it, and today we’re happy to announce that the month-long work will be starting tomorrow.

Big bund
"And it’s no easy fix. Because in order to shore up the rock face, we need to build a 'bund' – essentially a barrier. However, this is no run-of-the-mill bund, as it is going to tip the scales at a whopping 2,016 TONNES!

"That’s one quarter the weight of a Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer, or 404 elephants. Or indeed anything which collectively weights 2,016 tonnes. But whichever way you cut it, this thing is going to be the dictionary definition of the word 'big'."

Guernsey Water said that because if its size, the bund will have to be moved in sections. That means the material for it will arrive tractor load by tractor load to build it there.

Parking in the area (please see photo) will be suspended for that to happen safely between 7am and 5pm until the work is completed.

Further updates are expected.

The initial closure of the road last June happened without notice and the Vale Douzaine contacted the authorities for an explanation and some indication of the timescale for removing the "temporary" closure.