A new emergency relief route on the A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful is now operational with vehicle convoy testing under way to ensure smooth running of the road in the event of a landslip.

A further £4 million has also been made available to improve the A83 including progressing more landslip mitigation work.

Speaking at the new road in Glen Croe ahead of the latest A83 Taskforce meeting being held today in Inverary, Mr Brown said: "I'm delighted that, following a lot of hard work during some very challenging conditions, we are now in a position to use the emergency relief road.

"While some cosmetic works will continue in the coming weeks, the 'Old Military Road" at the Rest is now operational, and we are running test vehicle convoys to ready the team on the ground should we face another unwanted road closure because of a landslip.

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"The emergency services will welcome this development which will help them to enhance their contingency planning arrangements, and hauliers and locals will also welcome the shorter diversion route which help them realise time and fuel savings. Our focus through this project to identify longer term measures to address the issue of landslips in the area, has been to ensure Argyll stays open for business.

"We remain unwavering in our commitment to ensure we are doing all that can to improve the performance of the A83. To this end I’m delighted to announce the Scottish Government is providing another £4 million of investment to take forward a raft of improvements including further mitigation work at the Rest and Be Thankful like netting, drainage and planting works, and more safety improvements at key points on the A83. This is additional to the £3.7 million already provided to help tackle landslips at the Rest and Be Thankful.

"I look forward to updating the A83 Taskforce today with the latest construction news and the extra investment being made available."

There was also more good news for users of the A82 as the contract for a bypass at Crianlarich worth some £5.5 million, will be advertised to the construction market on the Public Contracts Scotland portal this week.

(GK)