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Highland Council confirms delay to completion of West Link Caledonian Canal work in Inverness; end date slips from 'early April' to late May


By Philip Murray

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The mechanism on the new swing bridge across the canal.
The mechanism on the new swing bridge across the canal.

WORK on the West Link in Inverness will not now be finished in time for Easter, Highland Council has confirmed.

It today announced that work on the final stage of the project – which includes the opening of a new swing bridge over the Caledonian Canal – will not be finished until "around the end of May".

This is a slip of between six and eight weeks from the last update less than a month ago, when the council was eyeing up a finish date of "early April".

Easter Sunday falls on April 4 this year.

The council did not immediately explain the reasons for the delay, although the Covid pandemic had already caused the original finish date to slip from late 2020.

Confirming the news on Tuesday morning, Highland Council said that a community liaison meeting had been held on Monday evening to "bring the local community up to date with the project".

A diagram showing the workings of the new swing bridge across the canal.
A diagram showing the workings of the new swing bridge across the canal.

Work is currently under way on the new swing bridge, which will act in tandem with the existing Tomnahurich Bridge to ensure that traffic on the A82 continues to flow when vessels pass along the canal. The engineering work has been modelled in 3D on computers and the complex installation is now at the stage of making minute and detailed adjustments to the mechanism in situ, to bring the bridge perfectly into alignment.

Chairman of the Community Liaison Group, Cllr Graham Ross, said: “I would like to thank the commitment of the volunteers involved in the community liaison group who have represented a wide variety of organisations over the last 5 or 6 years of the project. Their input has been extremely valuable over the whole project and has ensured that there has been excellent communication between the Council, the contractors and the community and helped with public relations throughout.”

Leader of the Council, Margaret Davidson thanked staff for all their work in bringing the project to its final stage. “These have been remarkably difficult circumstances over the past year and I am grateful to all the staff and contractors involved in keeping this important project on track. It is very exciting to see the swing bridge now in its final stages of construction.”


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