A83 Rest and Be Thankful to stay shut over landslide fears after bank holiday downpour

The A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful in Argyll was closed from 6pm on Sunday night, as the Met Office announced a yellow weather warning had been put into place covering the area.

Road maintenance and management firm BEAR Scotland said traffic was being diverted at the location. A decision about whether to reopen the trunk road will be made on Tuesday morning.

A statement posted onto Traffic Scotland’s main website said: “In response to the wet weather forecast, BEAR Scotland will be diverting traffic at the Rest and Be Thankful onto the Old Military Road from 6pm this evening [Sunday, August 4] as a precaution.

“A decision will be made about returning traffic to the A83 trunk road on the morning of Tuesday, August 6. Traffic will operate under a convoy system and road users should expect delays of around 20 minutes.”

A past statement on BEAR Scotland’s website on the Rest and Be Thankful said: “Landslides are triggered by heavy rainfall or snow melt and normally occur after prolonged wet periods. This causes over-saturation of the ground, which can lead to debris such as mud and rocks sliding down the hill.”

Engineers have proposed building a road shelter as part of a £470 million scheme at the Rest and Be Thankful to protect traffic from potential landslides. Under the plan, a debris flow shelter, which covers the road to protect it from mudslides, avalanches and rockfalls, has been earmarked as the preferred option for a long-term solution for the A83 Rest and Be Thankful.

The weather warning is in place across western Scotland until 9pm on Monday. Parts of Glasgow, Argyll and Bute, Ayr, Dumfries and Fort William were all covered by the weather warning.

The Met Office said in a statement: “A slow-moving band of rain is expected to affect western, central and south-western Scotland from Sunday evening, only slowly clearing during Monday. Widely 20-40 mm of rain may fall within the warning area, but 50-75 mm is likely to fall over the higher ground of Lochaber, Argyll, the Trossachs and perhaps also Dumfries and Galloway.

“Strong and gusty southerly winds will accompany the rain and there is the possibility of the odd rumble of thunder too.”

People are warned to check road conditions ahead of car journeys and be ready to amend travel plans, and to also prepare for the potential of power cuts by having torches and batteries, a mobile phone power pack and other essential items close to hand.

Public transport is forecast to be subject to delay because of the conditions, with road journeys taking longer due to spray and flooding.