Campaigners fear a series of closures on a key Highland road are damaging the north economy and could threaten the region’s vital tourism industry.
Hauliers, commuters and visitors using the busy A82 route from Glasgow to Inverness face a further six weeks of delays when tree-felling work re-starts at the end of this month.
Forestry Commission Scotland said yesterday it would it would start harvesting again at Glen Righ in Lochaber on May 27.
But the announcement was greeted with dismay amid fears travellers will start to shun what is one of the Highlands’ main traffic arteries.
Stewart Maclean, of the A82 Partnership, said: “We fully realise that this work needs to take place, but the cumulative effect of these works plus all the other ongoing works and unplanned incidents is what impacts on the local economy.
“People will begin to not use the A82.
“It is an alternative route between the central belt and Inverness and, if it was a decent road, I’m sure people would use it more and we would have more people coming into the area.”
He said he recently endured a frustrating 25-minute hold-up on Loch Ness-side near Drumnadrochit for as rock-scaling work was being carried out – despite assurances that the maximum delay would be 10 minutes.
Lochaber Chamber of Commerce chairman, Don Hind, said: “We only have one road in and out of Fort William.
“Tree-felling and road repairs have to be done and they will cause disruption, however it is unfortunate that they all seem to be happening during the holiday period when the roads are extra busy.”
Mr Hind added that the A82 was a vital link for bringing tourists from all over the world.
He said: “The delays now may have a short-term effect on the local economy, but we hope the improvements will make it more accessible to people in the future.”
Councillor Andrew Baxter, who represents Fort William and Ardnamurchan, said: “However frustrating it is for us, we know that these trees have to be felled so, to a certain extent, we have to accept that there will be delays.”
A Transport Scotland spokesman said the tree-felling presented “an unacceptable risk to travellers on the route below” and needed to be undertaken without endangering road users.
He said: “The timings of these closures are to avoid the peak traffic periods and other local events which generate large volumes of traffic.”
Meanwhile, further north near Glengloy, motorists are still delayed by traffic lights installed 18 months ago when half the highway collapsed.
And at Ardlui, near Loch Lomond, the A82 will be completely closed overnight from Monday for four nights for a £100,000 resurfacing project.
The Forestry Commission said the felling at Glen Righ between Fort William and Corran would run into autumn, but as a concession to commuters and the peak visitor season, there would be no closures between 8am-9am and traffic controls would be lifted for the mountain bike championship at Fort William in June and during the Scottish and English school holidays.
Project manager, Alex McLeod, said: “We’re taking a belt and braces approach to public safety on this one and analysed traffic flows along the A82 – as well as ferry sailings – at this time of year in a bid to minimise disruption as much as we can.”
Traffic controls will be in place from Monday to Friday from 5am-3pm, with short periods of closure in both directions of up to 20 minutes between 5am-7am and up to 10 minutes between 9am-3pm.
Roads agency BEAR Scotland said the overnight closures at Ardlui were due to the restricted road width available.
The route will shut at 10pm and reopen at 6am, with nighttime drivers forced to make lengthy detours.
The work was scheduled to avoid peak tourist traffic flows and to minimise any impact on daytime and weekend traffic and disruption to local residents.
Traffic will be diverted via the A82 Crianlarich-Tyndrum, A85 Tyndrum-Dalmally, A819 Dalmally-Inveraray and A83 Inveraray-Tarbet.