Current situation
Work is now substantially complete to repair a stretch of the B8001 road at Claonaig affected by land slips:
Our contractor mobilised to site on Monday 20 May for works initially programmed for completion at the beginning of October – an extension to the beginning of November was necessary.
During this time, we and our Contractor have done our utmost to minimise disruption to the public by keeping the road open for use under traffic management and a reduced speed limit – thank you for your understanding whilst the Works took place.
Current operations on site include:
- Minimal works will take place over the coming weeks including adding additional drainage material, top-soil to verges, and correction of any defects as appropriate.
Further works will include:
- Re-instatement of temporarily diverted overhead poles and cables (set out by the Works Contractor but to be completed by BT Openreach when appropriate)
- Final finishing including harrowing and seeding of the area in which excavated material was re-used for land improvement (this will take place during spring of 2025)
- Any defects related to the Contracted Works will be corrected by the Contractor as appropriate before the Defects Date (the Defects Date is 52 weeks after Completion of the Works, so before November 2025)
Soils Management
- Significant work was undertaken in order to successfully obtain a SEPA license exemption, which allowed the re-use of excavated soils to improve an area of land adjacent to the Works. This resulted in reduced costs to:
- the environment (reduced carbon footprint),
- the roads network (avoiding damage to roads and structures due to high volumes of material haulage)
- the project budget.
- We were able to re-use much less of the excavated soils in the strengthened embankment than planned, due mainly to their very saturated state, and not helped by the very wet summer. This resulted in the need to import suitable material for the embankment mesh fill, and in the export of material that exceeded the capacity of the land improvement area. This still resulted in reduced costs overall to the project as noted above, albeit to a lesser extent.
Works complete include:
- Temporary diversion of BT Openreach fibre optic and copper cables.
- Temporary works including drainage / water management
- Traffic management / road signage.
- Contractors' main site compound and environmental barriers.
- Site clearance and accommodation works.
- Access tracks to various parts of the site.
- Installation of scour protection in the form of rock armour at the base of the slope / river bank.
- Grading and finishing of the area of land around the scour protection site.
- Upper slope excavations and installation/infill of strengthening layers, grading and finishing.
- Use of a materials management / laydown area to enable sustainable movement / use of excess material.
- Grading and top-soil finishing to material management / re-use area.
- Excavation to designed formation level (and below if conditions required) of the new road.
- Construction of road formation capping and geogrid strengthening layers up to sub-base level.
- Switching traffic to alternate sides of the existing road to enable the Works.
- Use of the temporary road and adjustments to its construction during the switching of traffic.
- Installation of upgraded drainage including road crossings for pipes.
- Road pavement surfacing to base, binder and surface layers including passing place, and field accesses within the site.
- Formation of road verges and installation of fences.
- Removal of temporary surfaces and barriers / fences.
- Final grading to surfaces.
- Demobilisation and reinstatement of site compound and storage surfaces.
Images
Road and upslope before works
Road and upslope during works
Current view of road and upslope.
Scour protection during construction
Scour protection, completed.
The B8001 road adjacent to the Claonaig ferry slip-way
Funding is in place only for the landslip remediation works that are nearing completion. These works will ensure the B8001 corridor is maintained as a resilient route for the Skipness community and access to the Claonaig ferry.
We have been asked about any possible upgrading or widening of the B8001 road approaching the ferry slipway; although very close to the land-slip remediation Works, it is not possible to include any other potential improvements within the same funding.
It has been suggested that adding aggregate to the edge of the carriageway / verge would improve things close to the ferry slip-way; unfortunately this would bring its own problems such as causing vehicles to routinely overrun this area and damaging the edge of the existing surfacing. Unbound material will also migrate to the road surface and create a potential hazard to road users.
The B8001 is one of many single track roads across our network. We would be delighted to be able to improve, widen and enhance our road network in many locations. The reality is that we don’t currently have access to such resources to facilitate these kind of works. Our focus for the road network has to be sustaining and maintaining what currently exists.
Updated 7 November.