A82 Ballachulish Bridge - essential maintenance
Issued by BEAR NW for Transport Scotland
£400,000 Essential Bridge Maintnenace - A82 Ballachulish Bridge
Work begins on Monday 11 September for seven weeks
- Four overnight closures planned in late October for safety
Essential maintenance works worth over £400,000 are to be carried out on the Ballachulish Bridge on the A82 starting later this month.
The maintenance works involve replacing the bridge expansion joints in the bridge deck, ensuring the structure continues to function safely for many years to come.
The scheme is set to get underway from Monday 11 September for up to seven weeks. Temporary traffic lights will be in place continuously during the works and a temporary 30mph speed limit in place to keep roadworkers and motorists safe during the improvements.
To allow teams to access the bridge joints in the centre of the carriageway, four overnight road closures are required to ensure that the work can be completed safely. These are scheduled for October (dates to be confirmed), between 10pm and 6am. Further information will be shared in advance to inform all relevant stakeholders of the planned closures.
The dates for the closures will be scheduled to avoid clashing with any traffic travelling during the Royal National Mòd in Lochaber.
During the four overnight closures, light vehicles will be diverted via the B863 to Kinlochleven, adding an estimated 30 minutes to the journey. Due to the width of the B863 carriageway and the presence of a weak bridge, this route is unsuitable for HGVs so they will be diverted via Spean Bridge, Laggan and Perth. Alternatively, HGVs will be stacked at either side of the bridge until the closure is lifted at 6am. Consultation with the Road Haulage Association, Freight Transport Association and local hauliers has been carried out to ensure they are made aware of these restrictions, and instead encourage them to travel outwith the closure hours or find an alternative route once dates have been confirmed.
During the overnight closures additional bridge maintenance will be carried out to take full advantage of working on the bridge deck when it is safe to do so. This will include repairing a damaged overhead beam and installing new street lighting on the bridge deck.
BEAR Scotland’s Representative for the North West, Eddie Ross, said: “These essential bridge maintenance works will allow us to make sure the bridge continues to be up to standard and remains in a safe condition for road users.
“We only ever close roads when it is essential, and our teams will be making full use of the four overnight closures for the bridge joints in October to carry out as many repairs and other minor maintenance works as possible when the restrictions are in place.
“We’ve arranged the programme to limit the impact to road users as much as possible, and we’ve taken account of events such as the Royal National Mòd in Lochaber when planning our programme to avoid any impact.
“We’ve also reached out to hauliers and the Road Haulage Association to make them aware of the arrangements during the four overnight closures and we’ll keep them updated once final dates are confirmed.
“We thank motorists in advance for their patience whilst we carry out these works, and would encourage them to allow some extra time for their journeys. Journey planning advice is available on the Traffic Scotland website.”
Real time journey information is available from Traffic Scotland at www.trafficscotland.org or twitter @trafficscotland.