A83 at Rest and be Thankful: Ministers 'wasting' £130m on failed fixes

It comes as the road was shut for an ninth successive day on Saturday for safety reasons as maintenance firm Bear Scotland fear landslips caused by “high hillside saturation levels”.

Officials have rejected calls to make a temporary two-way road away from the danger at the A83 at the Rest and be Thankful which is expected to cost ten times as much.

Ministers have decided to spend £30m improving the current official diversion, the primarily single track Old Military Road which locals and campaigners have consistently warned is not suitable especially for lorries, tankers and buses.

When the crucial Highland’s artery is shut, motorists are sent onto the OMR which runs through the centre of Glen Croe and acts as a diversion using a convoy system.

One campaigner said: “It was built around 1745 for horses and carts it is not appropriate to deliver goods and services to people.”

The road was part of a network of military roads, sometimes called General Wade’s Military Roads, constructed in the Highlands during the middle part of the 18th century as part of an attempt by the government to bring order to a part of the country which had risen up in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715.

Construction of the OMR began in 1743 and was then interrupted by the rebellion of 1745. A stone seat was erected at the summit of the 860-foot-high pass at the head of Glen Croe bidding travellers to rest and be thankful.

Subsequent maintenance was undertaken by the 93rd Regiment, the Sutherland Highlanders until in 1814 the route was handed over to the civilian authorities.

How it looked at the A83 at the Rest on Tuesday and Friday as the road is blocked for the diversion.

The renowned English romantic poet William Wordsworth was to write of the road: “Doubling and doubling with laborious walk, Who that has gained at length the wished-for height,This brief, this simple wayside call can slight, And rests not thankful? “ The A83 is an almost 100-mile trunk road connecting the Mull of Kintyre and southern Argyll to the shores of Loch Lomond.

About 1.3 million vehicles travel the route every year. It acts as an important transport link for mainland Argyll and the Inner Hebrides and well in a popular scenic route for tourists.

The A83 at the Rest normally operates under traffic lights system after a series of landslips over a number of years that have put the important Highlands route out of action for weeks at a time.

When there are initial safety concerns, a convoy system is put in place. The OMR is used when there are more serious concerns.

The project details, seen by the Herald, will not make the road two-way, but aims to provide edge protection, curve widening and improved resilience of existing structures including bridge upgrades.

It also includes new measures to prevent landslips onto the road in the form of barriers and catch fences, that have previously been criticised for failing to stop the hazards.

The upgrade is expected to save ten minutes on the 40 minute convoy journey time when operating.

The work is not expected to start till later this year and the timescale for provision is not expected to be known till later this month.

A campaign backed by 1500 businesses has been pushing for a permanent fix for the landslip issues to be delivered by 2024 after an over 15-year failure to prevent disruption.

A previous landslide at the Rest and be Thankful

John Gurr, chairman of The Rest and Be Thankful Campaign, described the new plan as “another waste of money” and that a new temporary two-way road could be built in the medium term - two years - at a higher cost that would work.

“If they were to make the OMR two way that could be good but they aren’t doing that. All they are doing is improving bends with more nets and catchpits that doesn’t keep the road open. What we have been campaigning for is to have a two way road opens when it rains.

“All this money is being spent on another temporary solution that won’t resolve anything. They are just wasting money again.

“Their proposal means the A83 will still shut and divert for seven to ten years on a single track road while a permanent solution is sought. Rather than committing ten times more on what is actually needed.”

The Herald revealed in 2021 that transport chiefs had spent some £8.5m on “wasted” temporary sticking plaster fixes to try to prevent landslips on the key road over the previous five years.

Up to 2020, some £15m had been invested in catch pits and other solutions along the A83 as part of a £79.2m spent on vital maintenance and resilience on the road since 2007.

Moves over installing a series of catch-pits aimed at preventing road closures came after a major landslip around 650 feet above the carriageway shut the road in August, 2020.

Engineers said thousands of tonnes of debris including car-sized boulders slid onto the road after 100mm of rain hit the Argyll hills.

One of the landslip mitigation catch-pits, built to prevent landslip material reaching the road, caught around 2,000 tonnes - but it did not stop thousands more tonnes hitting the road.

The slip ushered in a series of road closures for the important and picturesque Highlands route which by January, 2021 had meant it was open for barely three weeks in the space of five months.

Between January, 2020 and February, 2021 the road had been closed due to landslides for 130 days.

Transport minister Graeme Dey said in 2021 that improving the resilience of the A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful “is one of our top priorities” and that they were continuing to work on a permanent long term solution to the issue.

Construction of a catch-pit on the road was completed in August, 2021 having taken over twice as long to install as promised.

The previous February, the A83 and the OMR were shut after hundreds of tons of debris fell in another landslip.

That is despite £1m being spent on 175-metre long, 6.6 metre high barrier having been built next to the OMR to stop debris from a potential landslip.

Mr Gurr said: “Why is it a good idea to continue to dig catch pits rather than invest in a solution away from the danger, if the hillside is not safe for people to work on its not safe for people to drive under?

“Our fear is the government has spent so much money building catch pits that they will want to continue to use this road for many years to come. The medium term solution will be a variation on what we have now, the road will continue to close when it rains, and we will continue to be stuck in a 40 minute convoy until a permanent solution is delivered in the next 10 years if there is any money left to build it.”

Transport Scotland has already established a preferred long-term replacement route via Glen Croe.

There are five options on the table for the route, some of which include tunnels of up to 1.8 miles long. A tunnel option could take up to two years longer than the others.

In August, it emerged that two Canadian-based firms are to gain from a £25m Transport Scotland contract to provide advice and design management over a future solution to issues with landslips on Scotland’s most notorious road.

The final award was given by the Scottish Government transport agency to a joint venture featuring Quebec-based consultants WSP and engineering and project management consultants Atkins, which is a subsidiary of Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin while a decision over a preferred solution is not due till the Spring.

Three years ago officials said that it may take ten years for a permanent solution to stop landslides on the iconic Scots road.

In November, hopes of getting a swift permanent solution to fixing the road were dashed as ministers confirmed it may not be completed till 2033.

Argyll and Bute Council want a new replacement route within the life of the current Scottish Parliament.

A Transport Scotland spokesman said: “The interventions announced for the Old Military Road will increase resilience of the temporary diversion route by reducing the likelihood of landslides impacting the OMR, or flooding events closing it. These interventions are smaller scale improvements which include widening and discrete realignment to improve bends.

“The interventions include proposals to extend the length of two way road, subject to obtaining necessary statutory approvals. However, a length of the single lane OMR will remain unchanged at the western end, including the hairpin bends. This option is significantly less costly than creating a two lane road which would still be susceptible to closure due to landslip risks. It will also be the quickest to implement, making this the most attractive and cost effective of the medium term options under consideration. Notwithstanding, this is not the long term solution for the Rest - that will be announced by the Spring of this year and will mark out the way ahead”.