Roadworks on the A465 Heads of the Valleys Road are Set to End

The Heads of the Valleys road, officially called the A465, is a vital link between the Midlands, and Southern England to South Wales, and after 23 years, the bungled upgrade works are finally set to finish.

Stretching around 23 miles, the road upgrade to the A465 must rank as one of the most time-consuming road-building projects in UK history. And if the cost per mile was also a factor, one of the most expensive. The BBC reports that the upgrade has cost a staggering £2 billion, a portion of which came from the taxpayer after EU funding was removed once the UK left the European Union.

Helping to push up that cost is extensive widening, designed to bring the road up to nearly motorway specifications and to make room for multiple new lanes. On top of that, the Beeb states that close to 70 new structures have been created, around 40 new bridges and 12 newly constructed junctions.

The completion of the work now means that for those of us who live in the Midlands and Southern England, getting into South Wales should be a lot easier as we move into 2025. That means the stunning Brecon Beacons, which hold popular biking routes like the Black Mountain Pass, the Elan Valley, and popular holiday spots like Tenby, will be much easier to reach. The flip side of that is that getting to the vast array of motorcycle adventure riding centres in South Wales (the Triumph Adventure Experience, Harley-Davidson Adventure Centre, and BMW Off Road Skills facility are all based there - among others) will also get easier.

And those final points are important, given that the upgrade works were first devised to help boost traffic into some of Wales’ most financially deprived areas. Boosting the footfall of traffic into these areas should have the knock-on effect of helping to drive the local economy, which is something all bikers do on pretty much every journey.

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