Highland councillors meet today to consider how to make safe a road built more than 40 years ago in an area of geological weakness which has been repeatedly closed since.
One of the options which will be examined to fix the A890 Stromeferry bypass in south west Ross-shire, would cost the Highland Council up to £132m. But the authority only has £10m budgeted, so is likely to pursue external funding.
Following last week's landslip, the road, which links the villages of Lochcarron and Kyle of Lochalsh, is currently only open between 7am and 7pm. It leaves late night motorists with a detour of over 130 miles.
A geotechnical report is expected this week which will confirm what further stabilisation work will be required. The road was closed for four months in 2012, when trains had to take pupils from Lochcarron and Applecross past the rockfall to Plockton High School. The Kylerhea/Glenelg ferry boat was also brought in to help with the vehicular traffic.
A report going to today's meeting of the council's Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee explains why the route is so prone to closure.
The road was built in the 1960s and opened to traffic in 1970, but the report says: "The road lies on the line of the Moine Thrust, a geological area of shattered and fragile rock which runs through the West Highlands. This geological formation of overlapping tectonic plates has led to instability in areas where the rock is exposed through excavation, such as on the Stromeferry Bypass."
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