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A82 campaigners criticise upgrade plans

Councillor Brian Murphy by the A82
Councillor Brian Murphy by the A82

Road campaigners have criticised plans for an upgrade of one of the north’s busiest tourist routes.

Transport Scotland will visit Fort William today for an exhibition of its plans for upgrading the stretch between Tarbet and Inverarnan in Argyll.

It plans to widen the existing route beside Loch Lomond, with a cycleway/footpath also to be added.

However members of the A82 Partnership have called for commitment from Transport Scotland to build a 24ft-wide carriageway rather than plump for a narrower 20ft option.

Councillor Brian Murphy, chairman of the A82 Partnership, said ‘ Since the start of this process we have consistently demanded that this, once in a lifetime opportunity, must reflect the future demands of traffic on this lifeline route and be designed around a 7.3m (24ft) carriageway.

“We are very concerned that all of the work to date appears to have been based on a 6m (20ft) carriageway which is in fact not much different to what is already there.

He added that documents from the exhibition avoids the subject of road closures required to carry out the works and the impact of these closures on the economy of the West Highlands and Islands.

Mr Murphy said that using the existing road would cause the most disruption and road closures.

A spokesman for the A82 Partnership also asked for more information on costs

Transport Scotland said that the scheme will cost between £215m and £285million.

A Transport Scotland spokesman added: “We are committed to ensuring that the A82 which connects the central belt to the Highlands and Islands is fit for purpose and have now identified a preferred route option for the 10 mile Tarbet to Inverarnan upgrade scheme.

“We would encourage anyone with an interest in the scheme to come along to Fort William today, the last of our series of public exhibitions, to see and comment on our plans.

“We will consider any comments, including those from the A82 Partnership, as we take forward the next stage of design costing over £8 million leading to the publication of draft orders for the scheme in 2017.

“As part of this work, we will consider carriageway widths of 6m plus 1m hard strips, and alternatively 7.3m for the upgraded route.”