Argyll and Bute to invest £10m in roads programme

Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands’ share will be £2.4 million

A council committee has endorsed a £10 million roads improvement programme for Argyll and Bute.

The measure was approved by Argyll and Bute Council's environment, development and infrastructure committee on March 4.

The 2021/22 roads reconstruction programme includes schemes carried over from the current financial year.

Covid and the restrictions imposed on construction work meant no surface dressing was carried out in 2020-21, though preparatory work was undertaken.

The overall budget is divided on the basis of the area of the road network, and the total spend for 2021-22 in Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands will be £2,443,000 – before account is taken of £2,610,000 approved in last month's budget and still to be allocated to works across the authority.

In a press release, the council said that the roads reconstruction programme aims to arrest the rate of decline and provide an overall improvement in condition.

The success of this approach has been demonstrated in recent years through independent evaluation, as outlined in the annual status and options report. These improvements were achieved through a mix of carriageway resurfacing, edge strengthening, patching/ surface dressing and in-situ road surface recycling.

These treatments seal the road to stop the ingress of water, improve ride quality and reduce the amount of reactive repairs. Without this investment, said the authority, there would have been a significant deterioration in condition. Councillor Robin Currie, leader of the council, said: ‘We accept that many of our roads are in a bad way and we have listened to our communities.

‘This was reflected in our budget decision and as a priority we are putting as much resource as is possible into addressing the situation.

‘With cuts to our capital budget, this limits what we can do with infrastructure projects.

‘£10m represents a significant investment in our roads network. We are working hard to support Argyll and Bute’s economic recovery post-Covid.’

51_a11SkipnessRoad11 One of the roads to be urgently addressed will be the B8001 to Skipness, where a 40-metre stretch of carriageway has collapsed and is sliding towards the Claonaig Water.