Landslip shuts Rest and Be Thankful yet again
Road open for less than week before its latest closure
A STRETCH of road at the centre of a major landslip cleanup has been closed again – less than a week after it reopened.
The A83 Rest and Be Thankful was buried under mud and debris on Saturday following torrential rain.
The latest closure of the Argyll route has again forced drivers to endure a 59-mile diversion.
The ‘significant’ landslip came amid a deluge of rain, with three inches (76mm) falling overnight.
Last night, Bear North West Trunk Roads tweeted that 2,000 more tons of mud and boulders had swept onto the A83. Conditions were so extreme that engineers were unable to conduct a full survey of the damage.
Forecasters are warning of more downpours in the area today.
The A82 was also closed in both directions yesterday morning between Invergarry and Spean Bridge, Inverness-shire.
Police said a ‘number of cars’ became blocked by a landslip but were eventually turned around by officers. Traffic Scotland reported a broken-down lorry had become trapped by floodwater in the area. The road was later cleared.
A Met Office weather warning for heavy rain took effect at 6pm on Saturday and only ended at midnight last night. Forecaster Greg Dewhurst said a ‘waving front’ had produced a band of slow-moving rain that ‘allowed the rainfall totals to build in the affected areas’.
He said the front had not gone away, and North-West Scotland ‘will continue to see more rain through Monday’.
Met Office figures show that Achnagart, Inverness-shire, had the highest rainfall totals between 6pm on Saturday and 9am yesterday with three inches (76mm) of rain recorded. Tyndrum, Perthshire, had two and a half inches (65.4mm) and Dunstaffnage, Argyll, recorded one and a half inches (41.4mm).
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency issued ten flood alerts and seven, more serious, flood warnings yesterday,
The alerts covered areas including North Ayrshire, parts of Sutherland and Easter Ross, Inverness-shire and Tayside.
High winds affected many ferry services on the West Coast. There were cancellations on CalMac’s Ardrossan to Brodick crossing and between Mallaig and Armadale on Skye, as well as Mallaig to Oban and Lochboisdale.
Separately, a driver was killed and a child and baby injured following a crash on the A92 between Lochgelly and Cowdenbeath in Fife, at 9.55am on Saturday.
Police Scotland said: ‘Emergency services attended and a 63-yearold man was pronounced dead at the scene. Two boys, a 12-year-old and a one-year-old baby, were taken to hospital for treatment to minor injuries and kept overnight for observation.
‘The road was closed for a number of hours and reopened around 1pm on Sunday.
‘Inquiries into the incident are ongoing.’
Despite the wet weather, temperatures are set to remain high north of the Border, hitting 21C (70F) today and rising to 23C (73F) tomorrow, before cooling down later in the week.