Repairs on A9 delayed

Daytime resurfacing work scheduled on a busy Highland Perthshire road across the first half of May have been scrapped due to the hike in traffic following the easing of lockdown rules.

Many motorist became stuck in a traffic jam at Aldclune, near Blair Atholl, when lockdown rules changed on Monday, April 26.

The BEAR Scotland teams had been resurfacing the dual carriageway with“no issues”, but at the change long tailbacks were reported along the Highland Perthshire route.

As a result the road maintenance and management firm announced on Friday, to avoid repeats of gridlock, that daytime work would be dropped until the middle of this month.

The move was accelarated by the fact that this weekend was the first bank holiday since the Scottish Government lifted its stay local COVID guidance.

Work on the A9 close to

Clunes Lodge and Kindallachan will now take place during the evening, from 7pm to 7am, with a convoy system in place for drivers using the road at these times.

A BEAR Scotland spokesperson said:“The recently completed project on the A9 at Aldclune began on Monday, April 19 and ran during its first week during the daytime with no issues.

“On the final day of surfacing work at Aldclune, COVID-19 restrictions across Scotland were eased further.

“As a result there was a notable increase in traffic volumes at this particular section of the route.

“As we had four more shifts of work to complete in a similar area, the decision was taken to move the remainder of the project to overnight working to ensure impact to road users was eased.

“We recognise that the A9 is a key travel corridor.

“We wanted to ensure that any disruption during this first week of tourism and hospitality restrictions easing was minimised.”

She said most of the company’s schemes on the A9 “are completed during the daytime with no significant issues”.

“It is expected that this arrangement will continue,”she continued.

“Travel and tourism restrictions are now largely eased across Scotland.

“We anticipate that the A9 will see an increase in traffic. Any surfacing schemes will be carefully programmed.

“Teams will actively monitor queues and manually operating traffic lights to keep disruption to a minimum.”