What options are out there?
There is wide recognition that to keep Argyll open after landslides at the Rest, there is going to have to be fresh thinking. Old ideas are not working.
Many of our readers have come forward with examples of other countries’ approaches to dealing with steep-sided mountainous terrain.
In a letter in this edition, (page 7), Ian Provan suggests an Italian model, seen at Lake Garda, involving concrete canopies with trees planted on the upper slopes to bind the soil.
John Henderson from Islay presented an example from the Pyrenees. He said: ‘The new roads built on the Spanish side of the border were extremely safe and would be passable most of the year using tunnelling and spiral roads where the road crosses under a bridge turns through almost a full circle then crosses the road to avoid very steep inclines.’
Richard Stennett in Taynuilt turned to New Zealand for his example. ‘Politicians promise solutions and spend millions of our pounds on inadequate fixes,’ said Richard.
‘It is time for an imaginative fix for the Rest and I attach photographs of a solution to a similar situation at the Otira Gorge in New Zealand.’
Maybe it’s time to look again at a potential answer suggested on maps of the Duke of Argyll’s surveyors in the early 18th century – a road linking upper Glenkinglas via Loch Sloy to Succoth at the head of Loch Long, bypassing the Rest altogether.
There certainly needs to be fresh thinking and new ideas if this is to be resolved.
But, above all, there needs to be the political will to make things happen.