Road improvements plans for Mid Argyll and Kintyre
Details have been revealed of the stretches of road which will receive attention after Argyll and Bute Council’s Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee endorsed an £8 million roads improvement programme.
This sum includes an additional £2.6m, approved at last month’s budget meeting.
Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands will receive a roads reconstruction budget of £2,621,610 for 2022/23, based on the area of road network.
The schemes have been identified using community feedback, the council’s roads asset database and the information collected from a SCANNER (Surface Condition Assessment for the National Network of Roads) survey carried out during the summer.
The purpose of the programme is to slow down the rate of decline and provide an overall improvement in road condition.
Councillor Rory Colville, the policy lead for roads and infrastructure, said: ‘We would love to be able to carry out improvements to all our roads but unfortunately, like most Scottish councils, we just don’t have the available funding to do so.
‘Instead, we have developed a strategy that we know from experience is successful; a strategy that minimises reactive work by delivering a variety of surfacing techniques that reduce deterioration and improve the overall condition of the road surface.’
Mid Argyll’s allocation 2022/23 will be £719,271 plus £100,000 carried over from the previous financial year.
The proposed schemes are:
▮ A819 Electric Cottage – £100,000 carry-over from 2021/22 for widening and re-alignment.
▮ A816 Cairnbaan Corner – £30,000 for pre-surface dressing (minor works to prepare existing surfaces) and surface dressing (bitumen and stone chips).
▮ U71 Park Road, Ardrishaig – £16,000 for pre-surface dressing and surface dressing.
▮ U54 Glenfyne, Ardrishaig – £16,000 for pre-surface dressing and surface dressing.
▮ UC20/21 Kilmartin school loop – £33,000 for pre-surface dressing and surface dressing.
▮ B8025 Poltalloch road/ A816 crossroads – £70,000 for pre-surface dressing and surface dressing. ▮ A816 Barrichbeyan bends – £150,000 to widen, regulate (add layer of bituminous surfacing to smooth-out ruts and potholes) and overlay with tarmac. Potential for co-funding through the Strategic Timber Transport Scheme (STTS).
▮ A819 Electric Cottage – £50,000 for earthworks and carriageway widening with potential for co-funding through STTS.
▮ B8024 Kilberry road/ A83 junction at Achabraid – £52,869 geogrid (plastic or textile reinforcement mat between bituminous layers to resist cracking and deformation) and overlay, with possible STTS bid.
▮ Inveraray Housing Scheme – £30,000 for inlay (removal and replacement of surface over entire width where levels fixed by kerbs etc).
▮ U18 Drimvore to Crinan Ferry – £110,000 for structural overlay/patching.
▮ B8025 Gallachoille – £45,000 for pre-surface dressing/ patching.
▮ C38 Barmalloch – £50,000 for structural overlay/ patching.
▮ C65 Inveraray Pier car park – £35,000 for inlay.
▮ C67 Lorne Street – £31,402 for inlay.
In Kintyre, which will receive £741,068 for 2022/23, £71,000 will be spent on the B8024 at Glenralloch for geogrid and overlay work, again with the possibility of STTS contribution.
The notorious stretch of the B8001 Skipness road which collapsed near Claonaig ferry terminal will have £342,000 spent on repairs, carried over from the 2021/22 budget. The design of reinstatement work has still to be finalised.