Melbury Abbas road buried under landslip reopens
A road that was buried under 50 tonnes of soil after a major landslip has reopened.
The C13, which connects Blandford and Shaftesbury, at Dinah's Hollow was closed on 8 March. Specialist engineers have been working for four weeks to reopen the busy rural route. A longer-term solution using tension wire and mesh and at a cost of £2m is planned to stabilise the steep banks, Dorset County Council said. Environment councillor Peter Finney said: "It is a costly exercise [and] it really is going to be the only solution, we think, to stabilise the banks." The road was closed for more than a year between April 2014 and July 2015 because of concerns about unstable slopes. It reopened with CCTV cameras, a reduced width and temporary traffic lights in place but was closed again in March after the latest ground movement. A two-mile (3km) diversion, via the A350 Blandford to Shaftesbury road, has been in place.