A83 Closures

[campbeltownx]

Does anyone else think that the communication by Transerve and Argyll & Bute council is poor on the A83. For example if there is a landslide, crash or road closed due to snow. On sunday the rest and be thankful was closed at the Dunoon road end but you could get to Glasgow via Dunoon ferries. But you wouldn't know it was closed until the policeman at the Dunoon road end told you. When we got to Gourock there was a large digital sign telling you that Loch Lomond A82 was closed. You never know that the A83 is open/closed or where the incident is. I got stuck a few months back at an accident at Furnace, if police/council had told me at Lochgilphead i could have a) turned back home or b) went via Oban. What's peoples view on this? Could we have digital signs at Snipefield, lochgilphead and Inveraray to help us make decisions on our journeys? The A83 is the arterial route to Argyll but seems to be shut every other week due to accidents or whatever. Obviously these things will happen but it's how they are dealt with that can make the difference!!

[jdcarra]

Does anyone else think that the communication by Transerve and Argyll & Bute council is poor on the A83. For example if there is a landslide, crash or road closed due to snow. On sunday the rest and be thankful was closed at the Dunoon road end but you could get to Glasgow via Dunoon ferries. But you wouldn't know it was closed until the policeman at the Dunoon road end told you. When we got to Gourock there was a large digital sign telling you that Loch Lomond A82 was closed. You never know that the A83 is open/closed or where the incident is. I got stuck a few months back at an accident at Furnace, if police/council had told me at Lochgilphead i could have a) turned back home or b) went via Oban. What's peoples view on this? Could we have digital signs at Snipefield, lochgilphead and Inveraray to help us make decisions on our journeys? The A83 is the arterial route to Argyll but seems to be shut every other week due to accidents or whatever. Obviously these things will happen but it's how they are dealt with that can make the difference!!

See viewtopic.php?f=12&t=11115.

We were one of the unfortunate cars to be turned back on Sunday night. What a complete and utter shambles from all sides. I will post my account of events later tonight and hope this will not happen again.

[sooze23]

what annoys me is that I regularly check roads on Ceefax and since the snow started I have not seen any reference to the A83 being closed and as it is such a lifeline route it should be highlighted.

[WTC]

We left Glasgow city centre just after 12 noon on Sunday ( 28th Nov) to head back to Campbeltown. Checked various websites in hotel and it looked OK. The sat nav had no mention of the conditions and road closures that were ahead.

The M8 had one lane clear right up to the bridge and the dual carriageway was the same.

It wasn’t ‘till we got to the ‘new roundabout’, before climbing the incline to Stoneymalloney roundabout, that conditions became very bad.

Cars were skidding all over the place. The roads had not seen a snowplough. We had no option but to continue as there was only one lane (cleared by traffic!) and no option of turning off/round.

At the next two roundabouts we thought Police/Council would be there but there was no one.

It took over 3 hrs to reach ½ mile from Inverbeg where the traffic was stopped by Police. They told us the road was closed!! We tried to perform a U-turn on the road and it took 10mins!!

No snowplough in sight.

We drove gingerly back to the City. The Police were now stopping traffic at the Helensburgh roundabout. Then there was a very large tailback from the Stoneymaloney roundabout back up the incline by now where we saw a small herd of snowploughs, well 3, stuck behind a queue of traffic.


Is this not the age of ‘information overkill’?

It would appear that the Police & Council need to talk.