MINISTERS have been warned of the risk of deaths as they forge ahead with a 10-year timescale to provide an permanent solution to Scotland's most notorious stretch of road - having sanctioned paying £25m on consultants alone.
Transport Scotland is offering a ten year contract for the consultants who will oversee and support delivery of a new route to replace the A83 at the Rest and be Thankful which has suffered decades of landslides.
The contract being sought is over and above any construction costs, and associated ground investigations aimed at making life for motorists safe at the landslip-prone A83 at the Rest and be Thankful (RABT).
The length of the Transport Scotland contract goes against demands from The Rest and Be Thankful Campaign which has set a deadline of 2024 to resolve a problem that has not been resolved in over 15 years.
The campaign group, made up of 1000 businesses from across Argyll, Kintyre, Mid Argyll and Cowal and supported by the Road Haulage Association and NFU Scotland, has written to Roy Brannen, chief executive of Transport Scotland and told him the "crisis" at the RABT is "an economic, social, and safety disaster for the area, which is not being taken seriously enough by Transport Scotland or the Government".
The campaign said it has learned through communications with transport chiefs "with growing realisation and utter disbelief" that it is going to take 18 months just to evaluate the ground conditions.
It comes as locals were warned the A83 could be shut down again in coming days with heavy rain expected from Monday night. The Old Military Road (OMR), the single-track local alternative route is on standby.
Transport Scotland says they are looking at ways to reduce timescales and were looking at upgrading a single-track forestry road running parallel to the A83 in the medium term which could be in place in 18 months.
There has been months of disruption in the past year alone after a series of landslips.
The Rest and Be Thankful Campaign say during the last landslide, a bus load of passengers was two cars away from being swept off the road.
Motorists already have had to use the OMR on convoy nearby when the important Highlands route is shut and when it too is closed, they face a 60 mile diversion.
John Gurr, chairman of the Rest and be Thankful campaign said: "If the next landslide, or subsequent diversion along the equally inadequate A82, results in a fatality who will be held accountable?
A helicopter was used in August to make a 100 tonne boulder safe by using water bags to manoeuvre it into a safe location
"This is an emergency. And in an emergency you have to cut through things to get things done."
In his letter to Transport Scotland he says: "If the A83 was a business site with the threat of a landslide outside its doors, would it still be allowed to operate, or would it be shut down? "Who is responsible for the social and economic impact on the people and businesses of Argyll while we wait another 10 years for something permanent to be done?
"All we are asking for is to cut through the 'business as usual' approach and appoint someone who can build 2km of safe road within the next 3 years, which stays open when it rains."
The Herald revealed last week that at least £4m had been 'wasted' over five years of failed temporary fixes to the route after an over 15-year failure to prevent landslides and disruption and come up with a permanent solution.
The new contractor will be responsible for managing plans still to be decided on to provide an alternative to the hotspot on the A83 which is a key road link for the Highlands and Argyll and Bute.
Part of their responsibility will be to prepare for public inquiries and hearing associated with the project.
Transport Scotland chiefs believe that a local inquiry will be required and the contractors will be expected to build a case for justifying the scheme.
The new A83 route which could include a tunnel close to the lifeline road via Glen Croe is the Scottish Government's favoured solution.
It was among 11 options put forward last year for a long-term solution to years of disruption for road traffic between central Scotland and Argyll.
But that choice has now led to five new options on the table for the new Glen Croe route, some of which include tunnels up to 1.8 miles long.
Although no timescale or likely costs were announced over the permanent solution to the chaos of the Rest and Be Thankful, the tunnel options could take up to two years longer than the others and some estimate it could cost between £268 million and £860 million at current prices.
The new contract makes it clear that ministers expect it to the take ten years.
The consultants will be responsible for carrying out traffic, economic and environmental assessments and carry out consultations with the public and agencies such as the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency.
And they could end up awarding the contract for the work on the new route.
The five remaining options for a permanent solution.
Issues with landslides at the spot were highlighted in the Scottish Road Network Landslides Study part authored by then Scottish Executive - 17 years ago.
Transport Scotland said that between January and mid-April the protection afforded by temporary mitgation measurews with extensive monitoring and assessment of the hillside, meant that the A83 and OMR remained in operation for all but eight occasions – five partial or whole nights and three partial or whole days - meaning that traffic did not have to use the 60 miles diversion route.
The transport agency added: "We can assure local residents and road users that the situation is being treated with seriousness and urgency with measures to maintain connectivity being expedited on a short, medium and long-term basis to provide increasing levels of service.
"Along with continuous monitoring of the hillside, the short term mitigation works have ensured that the A83 was open during daylight hours for the majority of the period between January 8 and April 5. Since then, the A83 has been run on a 24-hour-a-day basis on all but one day, when heavy rainfall resulted in traffic being diverted to the OMR as a precaution for the evening and overnight.
"The term 'emergency' has been used by the group to explore if further powers would be available to bypass some of the standard processes. Whilst we do not think there are any particular powers available in that context, we made a commitment, as part of the preferred route corridor announcement last month, to continue to explore ways of reducing the timescales to bring forward both the medium term and long term routes, while continuing to maximise the availability of the A83 and the OMR."
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