WORK has begun on one of the most difficult sections on the A9 trunk road, on the east coast of Caithness.
While the pressure continues to mount on ministers to accelerate the upgrading of the whole road south of Inverness to a dual carriageway, the notorious Berriedale Braes, north of the Sutherland village of Helmsdale, present a different problem.
At this point, the road drops from nearly 500ft above sea level to 65ft with gradients of 13%. On the north side, there is a hairpin bend which HGVs can only negotiate by taking up most of the road.
Ground investigations are now under way at Berriedale Braes. Transport Minister Keith Brown was on site to see the drilling rig start its work yesterday.
He said: "The Scottish Government has signalled its commitment to addressing the road alignment at Berriedale Braes, easing the problem for HGVs and other long vehicles in particular.
"To help identify the right solution, we are carrying out detailed design work and these ground investigations are a vital part of that. As the design work progresses we will continue to work with our partners and expect to have a preferred option ready next summer."
The £90,000 contract for these works, which are expected to last three weeks, was recently awarded to BAM Ritchies. Transport Scotland is providing additional funding to cover the total cost of the ground investigation works to progress this important element of the design process.
Local SNP MSP Rob Gibson said: "I am glad to see the Transport Minister come to Caithness to mark the start of the investigation into finding the best way to improve the Berriedale Braes.
"It shows the seriousness and progress that he and the SNP Government has taken to get the steep bend on the north slope of the Braes made safer and more manageable.
"Bear in mind there's been 40 years or so of talk on this matter but it is only in the last three years that we are seeing some concrete actions to help solve it. I too would like to have seen the Berriedale Braes problem solved yesterday, however, there is welcome progress."
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