MOTORISTS have been using an emergency route on an old military road to avoid a near-60 mile detour after heavy downpours caused another landslide on the A83 in Argyll.
Drivers and riders at the Rest and Be Thankful only faced maximum delays of up to 45 minutes after the opening of the secondary route yesterday avoided the need to travel via Crainlarich and Dalmally or via the Gourock-Dunoon ferry.
The secondary route operates by a convoy system and traffic lights and was pushed into action after 87.2mm of rain fell in the wider area over the past five days. It compares with the normal average of 10mm a day.
Trunk road contractors BEAR Scotland said most of the material that came down the hillside near the top of the Rest and Be Thankful had been caught by a new debris fence, but slurry had covered the road.
Transport Minister Keith Brown said a meeting of the A83 Taskforce was being brought forward to March 18 in light of the latest closure.
He said action was being taken to mitigate the impact of the incidents and added: "The Scottish Government, working closely with our stakeholder partners, has already invested nearly £7.5 million on the A83 around the Rest and be Thankful. This is a clear sign of our intent to find solutions to keep the A83 open and operational. The Old Military Road diversion is currently operational and is a clear example of our efforts.
"The A83 route study has recommended actions to address landslide hazards at other locations, in particular Glen Kinglas, Cairndow and Loch Shira, to give a comparable level of landslide protection to that proposed at the Rest and Be Thankful."
Mr Brown was responding to questions from Tory MSP for the Highlands and Islands Jamie McGrigor. He said he was reassured the debris fence had worked and the additional route was available. However, he added the closure was still "greatly concerning".
Argyll's SNP MSP Michael Russell, who had requested that the taskforce be reconvened, said the recent route closures had been "hugely disruptive." The A83 remained closed overnight.
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