A long haul

Perhaps Transport Scotland is allowing for the worst case scenario when it advertises its £25 million consultant’s contract over 120 months.

Work to improve the A83 through Glen Croe will not only involve the selection, design and build of one of the five permanent options on the table, but also the tandem construction of a temporary local detour in place of the existing old military road.

But with pressure to have the permanent solution finished by the end of the next Scottish parliamentary term, likely to be in 2026, and some wanting completion long before that - the decade-long contract does ring alarm bells for those seeking a rapid end to the landslide problem.