Publication - FOI/EIR release

Collapsed section of the A68 trunk road: EIR release

Published: 2 November 2020
Topic: Public sector, Transport
FOI reference: FOI/202000076274
Date received: 16 August 2020
Date responded: 7 September 2020

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

Information requested

You asked for "the following information in connection with the recently collapsed section of the A68 trunk road:

a) please confirm exact location of the incident

b) please advise initial cost estimate for reinstatement and projected dates for partial and full reopening of the A68

c) please confirm whether maintenance of all culverts and drainage channels near the collapsed section are part of the recently awarded Amey contract; or if not, whose responsibility they are

d) please advise how much of the reinstatement costs and consequential losses are covered by the Amey contract; if not 100%, who will pay for these?

e) please itemise any maintenance work carried out and issues flagged up within 50m of the location in the last 5 years"

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

To aid with this response I have retained the lettering from your request:

a) Please see annex a to this request for a plan showing the location of the incident.

b) Initial estimates for the reinstatement is £400k. The current programme for re-opening the A68 is for early September 2020 although further adverse weather or unforeseen circumstances could affect this.

c) The maintenance of culvert and drainage channels are the responsibility of the Operating Companies. This was Amey at the time of the incident and are now the responsibility of BEAR Scotland Ltd.

d) Transport Scotland will cover 100% of the costs for the landslip.

e) Please see annexes b-d to this response for details of maintenance works and defects for the location and time period you requested.

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