Comment posted A83: 11th and 12th August – final debris clearance from recent landslide by Robert Wakeham.
This photograph illustrates one point of difference between this section of the A83 and any self-respecting forestry road on a similar hillside; the forestry road will almost always have quite a substantial continuous ditch on the uphill side, whereas the A83 doesn’t. Yes there are culverts where there are watercourses, but we all now know that this isn’t sufficient, they can get choked by debris off the hill and the next thing the muck and water are all over the road and both flowing down it and over the opposite edge. The Scotland Transerv report on potential emergency diversion routes notes, on page 10, the ‘very effective open ditch system’ on the forestry track. It goes on to make the point that this helps to ensure that wherever water pours off the hill it doesn’t saturate the ‘unbound pavement’ of the track.
The A83 is fully paved, but given that the design of this ‘new’ section of the road dates from back in the 1930′s, whereas the vast majority of forestry roads are much more recent and their design embodies experience learnt the hard way, I wonder just how much a really hefty ditch (combined with adequate culverts) might have reduced the disruption caused by landslips in recent years?
Recent comments by Robert Wakeham
- Walsh to lead all but Lib Dems, Conservatives and George Freeman
I’m just wondering if this is a wild goose chase – barking up the wrong tree, so to speak – and it might be a creature of a different political colour altogether? - Walsh to lead all but Lib Dems, Conservatives and George Freeman
Talking of Conservatives, and bearing in mind the ornithological wonders of this part of the world, has anyone yet spotted a swivel-eyed loon? – or is it an imaginary creature? - First Minister’s choice not to condemn mob behaviour proves Farage point
Farage was in Edinburgh to raise the profile of UKIP – don’t underestimate wee Nige. - Walsh to lead all but Lib Dems, Conservatives and George Freeman
This reads uncannily like a description of Tommy Sheridan’s erstwhile political buddies – although they, thank goodness, have never managed to grab the reins of power. - Finally, SNP Government delivers a passenger ferry capable of seeing off Western Ferries
There’s a quite accurate measure of economic activity if you look around at where tower cranes signify construction in progress, and there are more in London than in the whole of the rest of Britain. Last autumn at a do in London I suggested to a senior Canary Wharf construction executive that London was increasingly behaving like a separate ‘city state’, with an economy that operated independently to that of the rest of Britain.
He was dismissive of this idea, but I’m not so sure.
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This photograph illustrates one point of difference between this section of the A83 and any self-respecting forestry road on a similar hillside; the forestry road will almost always have quite a substantial continuous ditch on the uphill side, whereas the A83 doesn’t. Yes there are culverts where there are watercourses, but we all now know that this isn’t sufficient, they can get choked by debris off the hill and the next thing the muck and water are all over the road and both flowing down it and over the opposite edge. The Scotland Transerv report on potential emergency diversion routes notes, on page 10, the ‘very effective open ditch system’ on the forestry track. It goes on to make the point that this helps to ensure that wherever water pours off the hill it doesn’t saturate the ‘unbound pavement’ of the track.
The A83 is fully paved, but given that the design of this ‘new’ section of the road dates from back in the 1930′s, whereas the vast majority of forestry roads are much more recent and their design embodies experience learnt the hard way, I wonder just how much a really hefty ditch (combined with adequate culverts) might have reduced the disruption caused by landslips in recent years?
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