Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

AWPR work resumes after four-day safety shutdown

Post Thumbnail

Work has resumed on the Aberdeen bypass following a four-day safety shutdown.

Transport bosses stopped construction on the £750million Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR) on Friday, announcing only “critical” elements of the road would be worked on during the “safety stand down”.

The decision came after the revelation that an investigation had been launched after a 29ft steel cage crashed down on the Goval Bridge section of the road, near Dyce, earlier this month.

But Transport Scotland have maintained that the stand down had been planned for weeks.

A spokesman said an investigation into the cage incident was continuing.

He said: “An investigation into this incident is currently ongoing. Any lessons learned will be applied to future work.

“While some works continued over the weekend, a planned safety stand-down was also held over the same period.

“Stand-downs such as these are common place across the industry to allow the contractor to refresh the health and safety training across the site, demonstrating the contractor’s on-going commitment to health and safety.”

Last week, whistleblowers contacted the Press and Journal to raise safety fears, and claimed it was lucky nobody had been seriously hurt.

And within hours of the story being published, Transport Scotland confirmed they would be holding the pre-planned safety stand-down.

As well as safety concerns a number of environmental issues have been highlighted, with a group of five residents in Deeside banding together to campaign against alleged damage being caused by the works.

Eminent biologist Antony Hawkins, one of the group, said: “I hope that the four-day shut down indicates that the AWPR contractors are now taking health and safety issues more seriously, not just for their own workers, but also for people living nearby.

“Noise and dust from the construction of the road has been affecting the lives of local residents and any risks to health and well-being must be addressed by the contractors.

“There are also risks posed by the heavy industrial traffic using narrow country roads and there is still a need for the contractors to minimise those risks.

“There is strong concern over the environmental damage being caused by the the road, particularly to local streams and rivers, and it is to be hoped that this is also being addressed.”