Highland Council warns that ‘bridge issue’ road closure inspection delayed due to bad weather; minor road linking A9 and B817 in Easter Ross near Invergordon has been shut since Saturday
High water levels and continuing bad weather are hampering efforts to inspect a road bridge that has been closed to traffic since the weekend.
An unclassified road, which links the A9 at Rosskeen Free Church to the B817 coast road immediately west of Invergordon, has been closed to traffic since Saturday due to an unspecified “bridge issue”.
When Highland Council first warned motorists of the closure, they advised drivers that the road would be closed until engineers could check the small bridge sometime this week.
The local authority did not specify what date that might take place or the nature of the issue with the bridge. However, that part of Easter Ross was badly affected by flash flooding on Hogmanay, with the nearby A9 at Tomich among the roads forced to close temporarily due to standing water.
The unclassified road between the A9 and B817 was still closed yesterday (Tuesday) and in a fresh update on Tuesday afternoon Highland Council confirmed that inspections had yet to be carried out owing to the difficult conditions.
And with snow and ice weather warnings active, and the wintry snap expected to last until the weekend, when a thaw will begin, it has not yet been confirmed when the inspection will take place.
A Highland Council spokesperson said: “This section of unclassified road remains closed to the public. The engineers are aware of the issue with the structure but are yet to assess the bridge.
“The delay is due to high water levels and the weather as it means they cannot access the structure to fully inspect.”
The spokesperson added that once they had an update following the future inspection, they would keep people informed.
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