Traffic will be disrupted on the Cromarty Bridge for six months as work on a £1.5million repair project gets under way.
Drivers have been warned that temporary lights will be continuously in place from Monday, August 14, and they will be manually controlled at peak periods.
Average delays of about 10 minutes are expected on the route, which is part of the A9 Inverness to Wick road.
The works involve concrete repairs to the bridge deck and supports, as well as protection measures to prevent future deterioration, while the bridge deck will also be waterproofed and resurfaced.
The project, announced in December last year, will be undertaken over six months, and follows on from a previous phase of refurbishment work to the first four spans of the bridge carried out in 2011.
Bear Scotland representatives have met Highland Council officials, the emergency services, Cromarty Firth Port Authority and the Road Haulage Association to inform them of the planned upgrades.
Eddie Ross, Bear’s north-west representative, said: “We’re pleased to begin the £1.5million refurbishment for Cromarty Bridge, which will ensure it continues to withstand the harsh natural environment and make sure it will remain in a safe working condition for years to come.
“We’ve taken on board the lessons learned from the previous refurbishment works in 2011 to make sure we can carry out this phase of bridge maintenance as quickly and effectively as possible.
“Our design teams have taken account of big events such as the Black Isle Show and Belladrum Festival when planning these works, and have arranged to start the project after these festivals have taken place to further limit any impact.
“We’ll be manually operating the temporary traffic signals at peak times to ensure traffic flows are optimised to minimise delays to road users, and, according to our traffic impact assessments, delays of up to ten minutes can be expected.
“We’ll be working to keep delays as low as possible and using VMS signs to inform motorists of traffic conditions.”
