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Key findings on the major road project
[Cover photo is Welsh Government information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0].
In February 2020, the Auditor General published an interim report looking at the project to upgrade eight kilometres of the A465, the Heads of the Valleys Road. The upgrade between Gilwern and Brynmawr is known as the Section 2 project.
Our update report describes the status of the project and key developments over the four years since our interim report.
The A465 Section 2 project has overcome considerable engineering challenges, and the upgraded road has been ‘open’ since November 2021, although some limited construction activity is ongoing.
The Welsh Government is now projecting a cost to the public purse of around £327 million for upgrading the A465 Section 2 road. This figure is up slightly since our interim report in February 2020 and much higher than earlier projections.
The project is already delivering some benefits but has also caused significant disruption to local communities.
The Welsh Government says it is learning lessons from the project by changing its construction contracts and reviewing its indicators of contractor performance.