An overnight road closure in Inverness tonight will go ahead as planned after Highland Council said problems which caused traffic chaos were resolved.
The council initially said the works would be halted after a blunder by roadworkers caused rush hour gridlock on Tuesday.
Hundreds of commuters, bus users and schoolchildren faced huge tailbacks throughout the morning as the closure of a key route into the city went wrong.
The council was forced to issue an apology for a four-hour delay to the scheduled reopening of the A82 Fort William to Inverness route at the city’s Tomnahurich Bridge.
The closure was required to allow local authority contractors to carry out work on the West Link project, with the road scheduled to reopen at 7am.
But a problem with the road reconstruction meant that it could not be opened for traffic until about 11am, causing widespread gridlock.
Planned works on the new roundabout tonight were to be delayed until issues were resolved.
Yesterday the council announced the overnight works will go ahead as originally planned.
The A82 will close to traffic at 7pm and reopen on Friday morning at 7am.
A sign-posted diversion will be in place for traffic during this period via Muirton Canal Bridge. Access for pedestrians and cyclists will be maintained.
Following unexpected difficulties encountered during Monday night’s closure, the council and contractor have carried out a full review.
The council’s head of infrastructure Colin Howell said: “We have carried out a full review of what happened and put extra measures in place, including agreed mitigation measures, a revised work programme and extra traffic management, plus additional signage to ensure it doesn’t happen again. With all these measures in place we are confident these overnight works will proceed as planned and the road will reopen to traffic at 7am on Friday morning.”