• Tree-felling Monday 4-Saturday 9 March 7pm-6am
• Road closure with hourly amnesties

BEAR Scotland, on behalf of Transport Scotland, is set to carry out essential landscape works to remove storm damaged trees and carry out other necessary tree felling on the A9 south of Berriedale, Caithness.

The works will take place from the evening of Monday 4 March 2024 to the morning of Saturday 9 March, between 7pm and 6am each of the five nights. There will be a road closure with hourly amnesties from 8pm to 5am. A convoy system and a speed limit of 10mph will be in place for the safety of roadworkers and road users during these amnesty tines.

The project is being carried out by specialist contractor Ayrshire Tree Surgeons on behalf of BEAR Scotland. The trees will be removed mechanically with specialist equipment.

Ian Stewart, BEAR Scotland’s NW Representative said: “Recent winter storms have damaged or uprooted a considerable number of pine trees on the south brae at Berridale causing travel disruption. BEAR Scotland recognises the effect this disruption has on the Caithness community. A large proportion of standing roadside pine trees within striking distance of the A9 need to be removed to improve network resilience. It is essential for safety that we put traffic management measures in place while we remove potentially hazardous trees.

“We understand that this will be disruptive and have planned the works to take place at night when traffic flows are lower to reduce the impact.

“The nature of the works will result in a slight increase in noise levels and we apologise in advance for the inconvenience this may cause.

“We thank road users and the local community for their patience and understanding.”

Consultation is taking place with relevant stakeholders in advance of these works to make them aware of the traffic management arrangements and to minimise any inconvenience.

All works are weather dependent and subject to postponement in the event of adverse conditions.

Real time journey information is available from Traffic Scotland at www.traffic.gov.scot, or on X at @trafficscotland.