A NEW wave of upgrades on the A830 Fort William-Mallaig road will start next month.
Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP Dave Thompson yesterday (Wednesday) welcomed news that urgent work to resurface a notorious section of the Road to the Isles is expected to be completed this spring.
As no potential diversion route is available, work on the near one-mile stretch at the western end of Loch Eilt, near Lochailort, will be carried out through the night. Work will stop for 15 minutes every two hours to allow any waiting traffic to be escorted through the site.
Resurfacing work will start on Monday, March 26, and is scheduled to last for two weeks.
While Mr Thompson welcomed the imminent start of work, he also urged Scotland Transerv to address the concern of Arisaig and District Community Council that this would be carried out over the traditionally busy Easter Holiday period.
He also called on Transport Scotland to ensure signage at Fort William did not give the “false impression” that the road was closed throughout the two-week maintenance period.
The need to resurface the road was one of several improvements called for at a meeting arranged in November by Mr Thompson between the local community and roads engineers from Transport Scotland.
The meeting was called by the MSP in a bid to accelerate progress on improvements promised following the deaths of teenagers Kirsty Bryden (19) and Roddy MacInnes (17) when their car left the road and landed in Loch Eilt in September 2010.
Mr Thompson said: “I am pleased that we are now seeing action to address some of the worrying defects on this important route highlighted at November’s meeting.”
