SCOTLAND'S most notorious road has shut for safety reasons after brown water was spotted on the hillside.
The landslip-prone A83 at the Rest and be Thankful was to shut at 2.30pm on Wednesday and will continue overnight as a safety precaution.
When the road is shut, motorists are sent onto a single track route, the Old Military Road (OMR), which runs through the centre of Glen Croe and acts as a diversion using a convoy system.
The road has suffered a series of closures since October 3 as engineers as a result of forecasts of heavy rainfall. It was out of action initially for seven days due to the continuing problems with the road.
It is expected that Bear Scotland, the road maintenance firm contracted by the Scottish Government's Transport Scotland agency, will carry out a further review of the current closure on Thursday morning.
The road has been running on a convoy basis rather than through the usual traffic lights as concerns continue over landslips.
A spokesman for firm Bear Scotland said: "This decision has been taken as a safety precaution due to higher than anticipated rainfall today and brown water being observed in several hillside channels.
"Our team continues to have a presence on site and are monitoring conditions closely. A further update will be issued if the weather forecast or hillside conditions mean a change to the traffic management arrangement is needed."
Campaigners have been long called for a full public inquiry to determine why road is still not fixed.
Moves over installing a series of catch-pits aimed at preventing road closures came after a landslip around 650 feet above the carriageway shut the key Highlands artery in August, 2020.
Engineers said thousands of tonnes of debris including car-sized boulders slid onto the road after 100mm of rain hit the Argyll hills.
The slip ushered in a series of road closures for the important Highlands route which by January, 2021 had meant it was open for barely three weeks in the space of five months.
There has been criticism over money "wasted" over what is considered to be failed temporary fixes.
Catch pits are designed to ‘capture’ debris material from a landslip and prevent it from reaching the road.
Two years ago officials said that it may take ten years for a permanent solution to stop landslides on the iconic Scots road.
The A83 at the Rest has been operating under a traffic lights system after a series of landslips over a number of years that have put the important Highlands artery out of action for weeks at a time.
Argyll and Bute Council want a new replacement route within the life of the current Scottish Parliament.
In August, the Scottish Government announced a £25 million investment for design and development work for the route through Glen Croe. The council welcomed the funding announcement and is now seeking a commitment that work will start imminently.
The final award was given by the Scottish Government transport agency to a joint venture featuring Quebec-based consultants WSP and engineering and project management consultants Atkins, which is a subsidary of Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin while a decision over a preferred solution is not due till next Spring.
The contract was finalised, a year and three months after the Scottish Government's transport agency set a deadline for the management services to support the delivery of a new length of trunk road at the Rest and be Thankful.
UPDATE
Bear Scotland said on Thursday morning that the A83 would re-open under convoy control at 9.30am.
it said that due to the improving forecast, the A83 will revert to traffic signal control from 4pm.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel