Moves in pipeline to avoid further roadworks chaos in Kingussie
Local Highland councillors are to meet with BEAR Scotland bosses in an effort to avoid any repetition of the past week's chaotic traffic congestion on Kingussie's High Street.
There was uproar when roadworks suddenly appeared at the Badenoch capital's most strategic junction – the four-way High Street link between both King Street and Ardbroilach Road – with extra traffic lights leading to standstills in the middle of the tourist season.
Town businesses and residents were most angered by the lack of formal consultation before workmen moved in with their bollards and extra traffic light system.
Serious road accidents just south of Newtonmore on the A9 Inverness-Perth road further exacerbated the situation later in the week with traffic being diverted through the town.
The concerns have been taken up by town Highland councillor Russell Jones, who told the Strathy: "It was not a good situation and we really have to avoid this happening again.
"I'm confident we can do that.
"BEAR shouldn't be approving works of this kind at this time of the year."
Businesses, fearing 'five weeks' of works they had had no foreknowledge of, complained that the disruption was leading to motorists generally avoiding Kingussie for fear of being trapped in long traffic jams.
Those jams were indeed happening.
High Street shopkeeper Claire Candy, calmer now than she had been at the start of last week, said: "Kingussie High Street has held together pretty well.
"The shops have pulled together and made sure to direct customers to all the different shops, so we have had an okay week in spite of it all.
"We really want to say what a good job Russell has done getting answers, and working on solutions to stop it happening again.
"We have noticed temporary pedestrian crossings have now been put in place again.
"It's just a shame it had to come in the shade of an accident..."
That incident took place on Monday when a pedestrian was involved in an accident with a lorry, but police confirmed she did not required serious medical treatment.
A BEAR Scotland spokesperson told the Strathy: “We have liaised with Councillor Russell about the situation and a meeting is being arranged with him and others in the Kingussie community to discuss how we try to mitigate such issues in the future.
“Last week we asked the developer’s contractor to improve the sequencing of the temporary traffic management arrangements. This seems to have helped the queuing in relation to trunk road traffic.
"We also urged the contractors to update residents and business owners, and understand a letter drop was being undertaken.
“We are continuing to monitor the situation closely while the works continue.”
The roadworks had been registered but it appears omitted from public lists.
A Highland Council spokesperson explained: "The roadworks in question relate to trunk road operators North West BEAR Scotland. The register information gives a start date of August 8 and an end date of September 9.
"The contractor is installing new electric and water services.
"Works were on A86 High Street but the contractor had shut the junction traffic lights off and replaced them with four-way temporary lights which take longer to cycle through the approaches."
Maria and Gordon Thomson, joint managing directors of London Edinburgh Holdings Ltd., are developing the former police station into 'eight high-demand eco-friendly holiday apartments' and have contracted KCN Groundworks of Aberdeenshire to do the necessary roadworks.
Neither company responded to the Strathy's request for a comment.
The date of the meeting between the local councillors and transport officials – which is also expected to involve Badenoch MSP Kate Forbes – is yet to be confirmed.
