{"id":37103,"date":"2021-03-22T08:39:33","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T08:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=37103"},"modified":"2021-03-22T08:41:16","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T08:41:16","slug":"the-preferred-route-corridor-for-the-a83-at-rest-and-be-thankful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2021\/03\/22\/the-preferred-route-corridor-for-the-a83-at-rest-and-be-thankful\/","title":{"rendered":"The preferred route corridor for the A83 at Rest and Be Thankful"},"content":{"rendered":"

The preferred route corridor for the A83 at Rest and Be Thankful<\/h4>\n

In terms of disruption and economic cost, the most serious landslide problem in the UK at the moment is the alignment of the A83 at Rest and Be Thankful in Scotland<\/a>.\u00a0 This key road, which provides access to an important area of Argyll and Bute, has suffered repeated landslide problems over more than a decade.\u00a0 There is strong evidence that these problems are becoming worse with time.<\/p>\n

Work has been underway to identify a route that avoids this problematic stretch of the landscape in Glen Croe<\/a>. \u00a0 In a rugged, protected landscape there is no simple solution.<\/p>\n

Late last week the Scottish Government announced their preferred option<\/a>, which was based on the so-called Glen Croe Corridor Option 1.\u00a0\u00a0Transport Scotland has now provided a really excellent Story Map that provides details of the options in play and the detailed processes used to assess their viability<\/a>.\u00a0 This proposal will retain the alignment within Glen Croe, but there is then a range of possible alignments within the valley:-<\/p>\n

\"The

The potential alignment options for the A83 at Rest and Be Thankful.<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

\"The

A part of the problematic slope at Rest and Be Thankful.<\/p><\/div>\n

The options are:<\/p>\n

The brown option<\/strong> closely follows the alignment of the current A83 Trunk Road and includes construction of a debris flow shelter around 1.3 km in length<\/strong><\/em> over the existing road, as well as a length of viaduct of approximately 0.3 km to improve road alignment on the approach to the Rest and Be Thankful car park.<\/p>\n

The yellow option<\/strong> would see a new single carriageway road constructed approximately 2.1km in length, positioned between the existing A83 Trunk Road and Old Military Road. This would include a length of new carriageway on a viaduct around 1.8 km long<\/strong><\/em> from Croe Water to the Rest and Be Thankful car park.<\/p>\n

The green option<\/strong> would involve the construction of a new single carriageway road around 4.3 km long on the opposite side of the valley<\/strong><\/em> from the current A83 Trunk Road, crossing the valley floor and Croe Water over a viaduct 0.2 km in length<\/strong><\/em>. Landslide mitigation works such as debris flow shelters, fencing and viaducts, would also likely be required to protect the proposed road from future landslide events.<\/p>\n

The purple option<\/strong> provides a new length of single carriageway around 3.2 km in length<\/strong><\/em>, positioned within the Glen Croe valley floor and tying into the existing A83 Trunk Road south of the Croe Water.<\/p>\n

T<\/span>he pink option\u00a0<\/strong>would involve construction of a new length of single carriageway approximately 4.1km long, of which around 2.9 km would be within a tunnel<\/strong><\/em>. The tunnel would pass under the Croe Water and the A83 Trunk Road.<\/p>\n

Transport Scotland is inviting views on these options<\/a>, whilst starting the process of assessing in detail their viability.\u00a0 A Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Environmental Report will be published next month.<\/p>\n

In the meantime works continue to try to protect the existing alignment – completing the new road will take several years at best.\u00a0 I hope to pay another visit once the current ban on travel in the UK comes to an end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Late last week the Scottish Government announced the preferred route corridor for the A83 at Rest and Be Thankful. The road will remain within Glen Croe, but there is a range of options for how it will be aligned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":37110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[144,469,27,228,133],"class_list":["post-37103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landslide-report","tag-europe","tag-featured","tag-road","tag-scotland","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}