A landslip at the Rest and Be Thankful in Argyll and Bute yesterday left motorists facing a 50-mile detour by road or ferry journey between Dunoon and Gourock as between 100 and 150 tonnes of mud and earth fell on the A83 after being dislodged from the hillside by heavy rain.
The road was officially closed at 7.14am and reopened to vehicles at 3pm after an intensive clean up operation. But the disruption was condemned by Argyll and Bute Council leader Roddy McCuish who said he was "hugely disappointed" that an emergency relief road due to have been open by now was still undergoing work.
The A83 has been closed six times in the last five years by landslips, with the latest occurring at a similar point to the previous two, between Ardgartan village on the shore of Loch Long and the Rest and Be Thankful car park.
"I am hugely disappointed. We were promised by the Scottish Government the temporary alternative route would be in place by November and that has not happened. It has now been promised this will be in place by the end of January but how many more times will Argyll and Bute be effectively cut off before then?" Mr McCuish asked.
"We need a permanent fail safe solution to keep the A83 open at the Rest and Be Thankful so Argyll and Bute can carry on as normal even when bad weather hits the area. Our businesses and people suffer every time the main route into Argyll and Bute is closed."
A spokesman for Transport Scotland said there had been a "speedy" clean up operation. "We are acutely aware of the views of the communities across Argyll to keep the A83 open for business – our absolute priority is always the safety of motorists and we are grateful for their patience," he said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article