Dalwhinnie road faces night-time disruption through October
The A86, which was blocked even to emergency services for weeks, is now open again says Laggan Community after major improvement works between Newtonmore and Laggan.
The announcement from the village page - if not yet on BEAR Scotland’s own website - caused celebrations on social media in the communities who had spent all that time on long diversion routes to Dalwhinnie, with several locals praising the quality of the repair job done on the Biallidbeag stretch.
“Yaaaaah!!” posted Shela-Ann Ryan, while Joan Chalmers added: “Thank goodness for that!”
“Great news,” posted Jackie Ashworth, while with tongue surely in cheek Chris Earp put up: “Shame, it was great being in a quiet cul-de-sac…”
After weeks of being cut off from all genuinely through traffic, the Laggan Coffee Bothy and Gallery posted a joyous: “Finally the A86 is due to open today!
”Our Saturday specials this week are Chicken Club Sandwich and Eggs Benedict - they won’t last long so pop in!”
The management acknowledged: “First of all we’d like to thank everyone for all of their continued support and business over the past few weeks. With the A86 being closed during the peak season, we weren’t sure how busy we would be, so we can’t thank you enough for visiting and it doesn’t go unnoticed.
The communities will now be bracing themselves for almost the reverse of the situation they have had to bear over the height of their tourist season:
BEAR Scotland has, after consultation with Dalwhinnie Community Council and local businesses, announced that at the end of this month there will be night time road closures through Dalwhinnie for virtually the whole of October.
“BEAR Scotland the North West trunk road operating company, working on behalf of Transport Scotland, is set to start essential resurfacing improvements on the A889 through Dalwhinnie Village.”
Resurfacing improvements are programmed to start on the A889 through Dalwhinnie at 7pm on Monday, September 30 and will last 20 nights with all works to be completed by 6am on the morning of Saturday, October 26 - depending on the weather.
The closure of the A86 was held up on several occasions by ‘bad weather’, hence the belated reopening on Saturday.
“All surfacing and road marking works will be done at night time only between the hours of 7pm and 6am with the road fully re-opened each day.”
BEAR explain: “To ensure the safety of both workers and road users, a night time road closure with a signed diversion route will be implemented on the A889 between the A9/A889 Dalwhinnie Junction and the A889 Crubenmore Junction just north of the Railway Bridge/Dalwhinnie Distillery.
“The signed diversion route will see A9 traffic that would normally use the A889 to get to the A86 will be diverted northbound from the A9/A889 Dalwhinnie Junction up the A9 to the A9/A86 Kingussie Junction, traffic would then be diverted west along the A86 through Kingussie and Newtonmore and onto Laggan where the A889 meets the A86, traffic can then continue their journey.
“For A86 traffic that would normally use the A889 to get to the A9 will be diverted eastbound from the A86/A889 Junction at Laggan through Newtonmore and Kingussie, traffic would then join the A9 to either head north or south.
“For Residents and Businesses of Dalwhinnie access will be maintained at all times during the night time road closure (Between 7pm and 6am).”
Operatives will be positioned at each end of the scheme extents to safely escort residents and customers to their destination within Dalwhinnie through the live works zone where surfacing will be taking place.
In addition for residents and customers wishing to leave Dalwhinnie there will be signs at accesses and junctions with a phone number to ring so that the TM escort can be contacted to escort residents and customers safely out of the site extents, this will ensure the safety of both the workforce and residents/customers.
The project entails comprehensive carriageway upgrades in the form of surfacing and road markings, this is aimed at enhancing road safety and conditions for motorists. These upgrades will cover a total of 1.7km on the A889 single carriagway.
