A85 road defects by Glen Ogle farm: EIR release

FOI reference: FOI/18/00308
Date received: 31 January 2018
Date responded: 28 February 2018

Information requested

The defect on Glen Ogle which has had numerous repairs. I would request how much time and money has been spent in the last 12 months on this defect. Could you also tell me why just south of Glen Ogle farm, uneven road signs have appeared at a section of road that has been breaking up for the two months. Surely the road inspectors should have listed road faults and acted before it became a road safety issue. I would also like to know why Glen Ogle was not gritted this morning until lorries got stuck and closed the road.

You clarified the location as -

"Approximately 200m North of Glen Ogle farm north bound."

Response

In response to your request, please see below;

This defect was a British Telecom (BT) box which had been reported to BT prior to it failing. BEAR responded to a call regarding the BT box failure on the morning of 31 January. Two engineers from the Operating Company were sent to the location to make it safe by placing cones around it and erecting signs. BEAR made a further call to BT reporting it. The BT box has now been permanently repaired.

Please see attached Annex A which is the Inspection Defect Report for section of road requested for the last 12 months. The approximate cost to BEAR Scotland for dealing with the BT box is in the region of £800.

Uneven road signs were erected due to potholing and material stripping during Winter 2017-18. We have a drainage scheme planned for construction in April 2018 to address defects at multiple locations within Glen Ogle. Annex A includes the defects inspection report. Decisions are made by the Inspectors on whether remedial measures such as signage or in some cases, temporary speed limts, are appropriate.

Winter salt treatments are planned by the operating companies using daily detailed weather forecasts for the next 24 hours. From this, precautionary treatments are scheduled as required on routes and spreaders are also deployed to patrol routes to monitor for any changes in conditions on the ground. The Gritters and Winter Salt Treatment Map can be found on the Traffic Scotland website: http://trafficscotland.org/wintertreatment/.

A frontline spreader carried out a gritting treatment at midnight on 30 January. The route was patrolled until mid-day on 31 January. A patrol spreader took over until midnight on 31 January patrolling the same route. BEAR received no reports of HGV's losing traction or any reports of the road being closed on 31 January.

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FOI-18-00308 - Annex A - Inspection Defect Report.pdf

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4 page PDF

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