A82 road is in a terrible condition

Sir,

Having read Rob MaCallum’s letter (‘Argyll roads have never been so bad’, The Oban Times, January 18), I would suggest he avoids travelling between Fort William and Spean Bridge.

I can almost guarantee it will frighten him more than any of the latest hi-tech rides you find at a theme park.

Just how Transport Scotland and its agent, BEAR Scotland, can just carry on replacing road surfaces without investigating the failures on some of the not-so-old surfacing work seems a total waste of money.

Is it narrow carriageway widths or lack of foundations that is one or more reasons for the diabolical state of our only major connection between Fort William and Inverness? And is it really all about the harsh winter weather?

In the mountain areas of France, a much bigger country than Scotland, it has the kind of severe winters that we have, but their road surfaces are far superior when compared with the A82.

If the specifications are right and the workmanship is acceptable, then will the government make the urgent decision and start spending our money wisely instead of seeing year after year resurfacing over poor infrastructure.

Thankfully, we now have CityLink’s luxury coaches, which help to cushion the A82’s imperfections, as we use to think we were riding on Blackpool’s old wooden roller coaster. Alan Robinson,

Spean Bridge.

Ailean Caimbeul