Re-opened

After five days of closure the A83 at the Rest & Be Thankful was re-opened this evening.

The landslip on Thursday morning was one of the worst in recent years and making it safe during some very bad weather has required a huge amount of effort from a very skilled team.

But very inconvenient as this has been for the people of Cowal, Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the islands it has been somewhat mitigated by the availability, for the first time, of the Old Military Road Diversion which was funded last year by the Scottish Government.

This saves the 60 mile trip round by Crianlarich and whilst on this occasion it has not been usable at night owing to the location of the new unstable slip it has been very useful during the day.

I only had a ten minute wait this morning . The last time I had to use the full diversion it took an hour and a half extra.