Calls for 'lifeline' Ross road revamp stepped up after accident
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Ross-shire councillor Kate Stephen made her remarks after witnessing the aftermath of a collision between a lorry and a Tesco delivery van on a stretch of the A890 between Lair and Balnacra.
That stretch has been on a list of programmed Highland Council road improvements for several years. However uncertainty over the capital plan, currently under review, has placed it back “on hold”.
The road, which runs from Achnasheen to Auchtertyre, follows a similar route to the famous railway line between Dingwall and Kyle of Lochalsh, and includes the infamous rockfall-prone Stromeferry Bypass section.
Cllr Stephen (Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh) came upon the accident, which happened on the afternoon of Monday, September 25 as she was driving between Lair and Balnacra.
She said: “There was a long delay after the accident on a road that is quite topical just now. People have been talking about how terrible that stretch is for a long time. There has been talk at Highland Council recently about what the future of the capital plan will be. There’s not much money in the plan but I’m very keen to see improvement work on that road go ahead as soon as possible.”
The route crosses a railway line twice. Cllr Stephen said the current thinking was to avoid such crossings wherever possible. She said: “There’s a very bad bend on the road, it’s very narrow and it can get very windy. It was never built for the traffic that’s now using it.”
She said she would be bitterly disappointed to see the work knocked back and said that it was virtually shovel ready to start once funding is committed.
A spokesman for Police Scotland confirmed there had been a head-on, low-speed road traffic accident involving a lorry and a Tesco van near Achnashellach. The road was closed for more than three hours.
A Highland Council spokesperson said: “Improvements for this section are in the council’s current capital programme, however, this is subject to an ongoing review of the programme. Work is on hold until the review is complete.”
A critical section of the A890 at Stromeferry is identified as a standalone project within the capital programme. It was closed by 10 significant rock falls between 1990 and 2012. In 2011, it was closed for four months. Works costed at £1m were instigated in August to protect it further from rockfalls but a long-term solution, which could involve re-routing the road, building a bridge or a tunnel, have been costed at between £85m and £171m.
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