The main road through Strathpeffer has reopened to traffic despite work on the town’s main sewer not yet having been completed according to Scottish Water.
The road has been closed for more than three weeks and was supposed to have reopened on Sunday but remained shut to traffic until Friday.
Scott Heath, Senior Project Manager, said: “We would like to apologise to residents and road users for the need to extend the closure of the A834 and thank them for their patience.”
Mr Heath said: “Our priority this week has been to reopen the road as soon as possible, so we agreed with Highland Council that we would temporarily reinstate the road surface.”
That will last “until an improvement in the weather conditions allows us to complete permanent reinstatement to the required standard.”
The work took longer than scheduled to complete due to “unforeseen challenges with other underground services and wintry weather conditions.”
Work will now continue until the end of April with some excavation which can take place safely using traffic lights.
The final phase will use a specialised “re-lining technique” within the sewer to avoid the need for more disruptive work in the village centre.
Pedestrian and vehicle access will be maintained as far as possible during the rest of the work and local businesses will be open as usual.