Roundabout concerns asOT £340,000 is spent on new barriers

£340,000 project to fit and upgrade crash barriers along the A85 between Oban and the south of Dunbeg could take up to four weeks.

The project will see more than 1,800m of safety barriers installed or upgraded along sections of the route from the north of Oban to the Halfway House Filling Station.

Work started last week and motorists are being warned to expect some delays. The A85 will stay open during the project but there will be temporary traffic lights.

The project was identified as part of an on-going study to improve road safety, following The Oban Times’ campaign, Stay Alive on the A85.

But now residents in Dunbeg are concerned the crash barriers could jeopardise the possibility of a roundabout being built on that section of road.

Dunbeg Community Council chairman Sean MacIntyre said: ‘Does that mean the roundabout is not going to go ahead? I don’t think it will ever happen. The people in this village were sold the idea of two roundabouts.’

Argyll and Bute councillor Elaine Robertson said: ‘There are on-going talks about this. We want to see the roundabout in.

‘We are asking the same questions as you are. We have to get the funding bodies together.’

A member of the public said: ‘I think by putting the traffic barriers there, people will see them and think they need to slow down, then they will come out and start speeding up and go past the road end faster.

‘In a way it’s like saying we will just give them a crash barrier and they will shut their mouth.’