Stromeferry options and estimated costs unveiled

The Options identified by The Highland Council for the long-term improvement of the A890 Lochcarron – Lochalsh road are now available on the Council’s web site. They have been posted on the web ahead of Monday’s exhibition at Lochcarron Village Hall (between 3 – 7 pm) and a public meeting (7 pm).

The aim of the meeting is to establish the views of the local community and to identify if there are any further options that the Council needs to consider before progressing to stage two of the process, which is to conduct an options appraisal on the selected options.

Once the options appraisal is completed the outcome will be taken back to the community to give them the opportunity to make any further comment.
The main proposals being presented to the meeting involve a number of options for upgrading the existing route; the bridging of the narrows between Lochcarron and Stromeferry with the associated approach road –;  and a by-pass through the Attadale Estate between Strathcarron Junction and Glen Udalain.

There are 6 options for upgrading the existing route. These are:-

The estimated cost of providing a by-pass via Glen Udalain is £23 million.
The bridge crossing near the Strome narrows and approach road is estimated to cost £60 million.

Councillor Graham Phillips, Chairman of the Transport Environmental and Community Services Committee, will chair the public meeting.

He said:  “We very much welcome the views of the public on the options we will be displaying at the exhibition and others that we may have overlooked. This will be the first of a number of consultations with the public as we take the project through its various stages of design development.”

Following the road closure on 22 December, last year, the Council commissioned a car ferry and a passenger ferry to maintain links between Lochcarron and Stromeferry and an early morning train service between Strathcarron and Kyle was organised by Scotrail to take pupils from Applecross, Kishorn and Lochcarron to Plockton High School in time for the start of the school day. These were withdrawn when traffic was diverted on to the railway line on 26 March. The road was fully reopened on 23 April.

The overall cost of dealing with the recent rock fall, including the ferries and additional train services is estimated at £2.8 million.