The Kintyre Forum

THE RUMOUR THAT THE SOUTHEND ROAD IS TO CLOSE ON 30TH JANUARY AND THAT THERE IS TO BE A ONE WAY SYSTEM USING THE LEAR ROAD AND DALSMERAN ROAD ARE NOT TRUE.

This rumour seems to have taken root in the last few days and has meant several Community Councillors have spent a lot of time on the phone, speaking to people etc trying to find out what is what.

The Community Council has arranged for a number of people and organisations to be kept updated as to what is happening and to allow them to plan for closure for whatever reason.

Our Community Council meeting is on Wednesday 27th In the Argyll Arms Southend at 8.00pm. This will be the main topic discussed and we will be planning a meeting for the Southend people. At present the road is monitored and any major changes will be notified by the appropriate authorities.

Sooze

What is happening to the road at Coniglen??? Cant believe it is being guarded and watched 24/7.
We can go to the moon nowadays,and if that road collapses, it wont be long till both Dalsmirren road and learside crumble too with volume off traffic, and Southend be cut off.
It only a matter of weeks till the caravan site at Machribeg opens,resulting in a lot more traffic.........

Where's 4th gen Suthen' wi' the inside information ? ?

I can't believe the council are actually 'observing' the road rather than taking action as in repairing it. I'm not a civil engineer but the road won't get better, only worse. Would it not make sense to act now while it's quieter. Come Easter the roads busy up and any diversion as someone said earlier would not last.

Can someone from the council not come on and explain their reasoning and lack of action. Or will they make a statement when the road collapses and say 'in hindsight blah blah..' All i can say is watch this space.

There has been work done and investigations completed. Options have been looked at (you can find them on the council website) and they will be going for a decision on 18th.

Today, when he was in Campbeltown, Alan Reid MP met with Community Councillors and members of the community to see the road itself and will be writing to the appropriate people re this. Apart from our local councillors I do not know of any others i.e. those making the decisions, coming to see for themselves. However it must be remembered that this is not just the cost of repairing the road as soon as possible but the consequences of not repairing sooner rather than later. Dalbuie Bridge took 5 years and costs soared but at least there was no concern of collapse. This time the costs will affect lolts of different areas e.g. longer journey times affecting education, social work etc which will need to come out of other budgets.

Sooze

I'm sorry Sooze, but I have had a look at the website and cannot find anything. I found it so up-to-date that it reported on how well the repairs on the Dunglass bridge were coming on! Do you have a link?

If you go to www.southendargyll.org.uk you will see reference to The Road on left hand side and there are links from there.

Notice I managed, for once, to keep out of the picture - just a glimpse and my shoe.

Sooze

LANDSLIP ISSUE ON KINTYRE ROAD TO BE ADDRESSED

Argyll and Bute Council has agreed how it will take forward works on a stretch of road in Kintyre which is susceptible to landslides.

The authority will formalise the roadside and field drainage on the B842 Conie Glen road between Campbeltown and Southend, and construct a new northbound lane uphill of the existing road.

Although the solution does not remove the entire risk of the ground below the road continuing to slip, it does provide a reduced level of risk which can be better managed in future.

The Conie Glen road is built on top of an area of ground which has experienced landslides both prior to its construction and since.

In modern times, there were ground movements about 40 years ago and again in 2009, although experts believe it is likely that small movements have been continually taking place in between.

Following the landslip activity in 2009, traffic has been confined to single way working under the control of traffic lights.

The Council engaged geotechnical experts Scott Wilson to draw up a report on the situation and the possible options open to it, before drawing up the report considered at today's Executive.

Council Leader Dick Walsh said: “It is extremely important that we do something at this location, as this issue is not going to go away. The current situation is obviously of concern not just to the local residents, but to the many hundreds of people who visit the Southend area both for business and pleasure.

“We believe this option is the best way forward, and the local community is supportive of it.

“It will not reduce the risk entirely. However, we already have monitoring equipment on site which will alert us immediately if there is any future movement so that we can get on site straight away to stabilise the situation should it be necessary.”

The project will now move to the design phase. It is hoped that the work will be completed towards the end of the summer.

Thank goodness. Let's here it for a bit of common sense (albeit costly). Hopefully this will keep everything moving-traffic and economy wise.

Thanks for the update. I couldn't actually get anything to open up on the council website. So now I know.

Seems like the council has made good on its promise to make repairs to the Southend road early, achieved with the minimum of fuss or inconvenience to road users too. I was down there early this morning just in time to see the overnight repairs being finished off and to see the workmen leaving. A job well done I think.

very good Crowth!