BEAR Scotland, on behalf of Transport Scotland, is set to carry out essential maintenance on both lanes of the A9 over Cromarty Bridge, near Dingwall, from Monday 21 July. Works are expected to take around 20 weeks to complete, with total work costs of £2.9 million. To minimise traffic disruption, works are being carried out overnight.
The works will involve concrete repairs, bearing replacements, bridge joint modifications, installation of a corrosion prevention system, expansion joint replacement and resurfacing the road. These works are being carried out at the south end of the bridge to repair concrete and steel defects caused by corrosion.
To ensure the safety of both road users and the workforce, temporary traffic lights will be on the bridge from 7pm until 6am, Monday to Friday. Traffic lights will be removed outwith weekday working hours and a 30mph temporary speed restriction will be in place 24 hours a day as traffic will be travelling over temporary steel plates.
On Saturdays and Sundays, temporary traffic lights will be in place 24 hours a day to allow the contractor to complete longer duration works such as bearing replacements and concrete repairs above and below the bridge.
Where weekend working finishes earlier than expected, traffic lights may be removed. However, whilst every effort will be made to complete the weekend works in as timely a manner as possible, there is a possibility that traffic lights could occasionally be required beyond 6am on Monday mornings.
Queuing traffic will be monitored on site and temporary traffic lights manually controlled at peak periods to minimise delays. Recovery vehicles will be on site whilst temporary traffic lights are in place to attend to broken down vehicles or any incidents that may occur.
Scottish Water are proposing to carry out separate works from Monday 7 July until Friday 3 October. This will result in the closure of the A862 from Ardullie roundabout towards Dingwall during this period. This proposed closure is outwith the control of BEAR Scotland, however, every effort will be made to minimise the impact on road users using Cromarty Bridge.
Access for emergency services will be maintained at all times and the footpath across Cromarty Bridge will remain open throughout the works.
Holding laybys will be provided for abnormal vehicles heavier than 80 tonnes and wider than 3.25m. Abnormal vehicles heavier than 100 tonnes will have to use an alternative route from Monday 1 September until the works are completed.
Euan Scott, BEAR Scotland’s North West Representative, said, “This refurbishment is an important investment in this major structure by Transport Scotland which will help ensure the long-term integrity of the bridge.”
“Learnings from previous works on Cromarty Bridge have been built into the planning for these improvements and have been designed to minimise traffic disruption.”
“Our design teams have taken account of big local events such as the Black Isle Show and the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival when planning these works and will ensure that daytime temporary traffic lights are not in operation during these times. We’ll also be manually operating the temporary traffic signals at peak times to ensure traffic flows are optimised to minimise delays to road users.
“We are committed to completing this essential maintenance as quickly and safely as possible. We thank all road users and the local community for their patience in advance. Please plan ahead by checking the Traffic Scotland website for up-to-date journey information and leave some extra time to complete journeys.”
Real time journey information is available from Traffic Scotland on www.traffic.gov.scot, X @trafficscotland or on the mobile site my.trafficscotland.org.
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