Kessock Bridge repair works get underway

DELAYS on the Kessock Bridge on the first day of major roadworks were described as "minimal" by Scotland Transerv this morning.

Motorists were experiencing delays of around 10 minutes at 8am but otherwise traffic appeared to be flowing fairly smoothly, according to Cathel Macaskill, of Scotland Transerv.

Mr Macaskill thanked commuters for heeding advice by taking other forms of transport and car sharing, but warned motorists they should not become complacent.

He said: "We’re delighted with the efforts made by all road users this morning and there appears to have been smooth traffic flow with delays of, at worst, 10 minutes around 8am.

"From our observations on the bridge this morning it appears that car occupancy was higher so it looks like people are car sharing which is excellent.

"However we do expect the traffic volume to be higher in the evening so it’s very important that people don’t get complacent and take the view that the situation on the bridge is not as bad as anticipated.

"This is only day one and we would urge road users to continue to use public transport, share cars and look at flexible working hours if at all possible."

Vehicle occupancy rate on vehicles travelling over the Kessock Bridge has been put at 1.1 person per vehicle. Scotland Transerv says an increase in occupancy rate to 1.5 per vehicle on the route would take 800 vehicles off the bridge.

Both lanes of the A9 northbound carriageway will be closed for the first three days of the emergency repair works.

From June 23, both lanes of the southbound carriageway will be shut until the evening of June 26 to allow for work on the southbound expansion joint of the bridge.

Scotland Transerv has set up a twitter account to provide up-to-the-minute information about the works:www.twitter.com/kessockbridge.

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.