Road closures which caused gridlock in the centre of Inverness are due to resume for the project’s “final stages” next week.
Motorists have been warned to expect further delays on the A82 route into Inverness from Fort William as part of work on the city’s £55million West Link scheme.
Drivers were left furious on Tuesday after a blunder by workers led To a four-hour delay to the scheduled reopening of the busy road.
Charleston Academy said it had to delay the start of the school day because the closure at the city’s Tomnahurich Bridge meant traffic was “not moving around the school”, while bus services were also “severely delayed”.
Highland Council apologised for the late 11am reopening of the route, which had been due at 7am, but went ahead with a further overnight closure on Thursday into Friday without any reported problems.
Further closures are now planned at the same site on Monday evening, with Tomnahurich Bridge to be shut to all road traffic from 7pm and not reopening until 7am.
On Tuesday, the final overnight closure will take place, again from 7pm until 7am on Wednesday.
The same diversion will be in place for vehicles via General Booth Road and Muirton Canal Bridge, while access for pedestrians and cyclists will not be affected.
On the same stretch of road intermittent “stop/go” traffic management will be in place during the day on both Monday and Tuesday.
Narrower lanes will also be required to ensure the safety of workers.
Highland Council said: “Drivers should expect some delays and allow extra time for their journeys, although every effort will be made to keep any disruption to a minimum.”
“The council and contractor thank the public for their patience.”
On Wednesday next week, the road will be open as normal, but during the day on Thursday (3 November), there will be “stop/go” signs and narrow lanes will be in place.
The following week “stop/go” signs will be used to control traffic on November 7, 8 and 9, while line painting is carried out.
The long-awaited West Link road will join the A82 to the Dores Road via a new bridge.
The council’s contractor, Wills Bros, said on Tuesday that an “important lesson” had been learned, after it was unable to re-open the road before rush-hour, because of a problem with road reconstruction work.
