Organisation: TMS Consultancy
Date of completion: August 2025
Uploaded to Knowledge Centre: 17 September 2025
Over the last 12 months, TMS Engineers have been carrying out Stage 3 Road Safety Audits on the last section of the A465 Heads of the Valleys project in South Wales. The 11mile (17.7km) section of brand new dual carriageway runs from Hirwaun to Dowlais Top and replaces the existing single carriageway road.
The final phase of the £2 billion Heads of the Valleys Road upgrade programme has now officially opened, marking the end of the project. The Welsh Government said it marked the completion of “one of the UK’s largest and most technically challenging road projects”. The £1.4 billion Section 5 and 6 Dowlais to Hirwaun final phase links the Valleys, South and West Wales to the English Midlands and beyond.
Since the summer of 2024, TMS has carried out 41 separate visits and produced 53 reports. The process involved walking the majority of the new roads before they were fully opened to traffic and TMS estimates that its engineers have walked a staggering 50km along the mainline, grade separated junctions and side roads.
Read more about the project:
https://tmsconsultancy.co.uk/insights/heads-of-the-valleys-opens
Watch a video explaining the road safety audit process: