The northbound side of Alan Turing Way in east Manchester, between Ashton Old Road and Grey Mare Lane, has been closed since March, when a hole opened up in the road. Manchester City Council now says it was caused by a previously unrecorded mine shaft, about 3m across and 50m deep, and expects to reopen the road in mid-December.

The council told the Manchester Evening News it took until September to be sure of the cause. Engineers had to rule out water, utilities and a clay mine before confirming a coal mine shaft and its depth. The shaft has since been stabilised and filled with about 120 tonnes of concrete grout, the MEN reported, and the council says there is no further danger of collapses on this road.

The next step is a reinforced concrete slab over the filled shaft. The void between the slab and the road will then be filled, the remaining utility connections repaired and the road resurfaced before it reopens. The council described mid-December as an estimate that could slip because of bad weather or problems found during the work. It has not published the cost, which the MEN says should be known once the project is finished.

Councillor Mandie Shilton Godwin, the council's executive member for clean air, environment and transport, said: “No one could have anticipated the scale of the void that we found.” She told the MEN that the closure had been hugely difficult for residents, as traffic has been diverted through local estates, and added: “I want to say sorry to all those people it happened to.”

The MEN reported that the site is close to the Etihad Stadium and Co-op Live, which has added to congestion on event days, and that workers had to avoid main lines and utility feeds serving both venues. The paper also reported that a Newton Heath resident had recorded 20-minute journeys taking an hour or more.

Sources: Manchester Evening News (Local Democracy Reporting Service), 21 October 2026; About Manchester, 21 October 2026 (carrying Manchester City Council's statement). This article was produced with the help of AI tools and checked by an editor against the sources above.