A83 emergency diversion route at the Rest and Be Thankful pass: EIR release

Information requested

“Please may i request a list of suppliers, subcontractors and subcontractors involved with the upgrade the emergency diversion route for the A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful pass. The parallel Old Military Road will be widened from largely single track to mainly two-way, apart from at hairpin bends at the north end.

Work on the first of three phases will focus on moving the southern end of the road from a flood zone. The second phase will see landslide protection measures such as debris and rockfall fences, bunds and drain improvements. This includes 600ft-long bund comprising giant sacks of gravel stacked 20ft high being built where a landslide engulfed the route in 2020. In the third phase, some bends will be widened, while two-way sections will be extended”.

Response

Please find below response to request for information you made in your email.

As all of 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.

Response

Please see below list of Contractors, Sub-Contractors and Suppliers that have been involved in the works to upgrade the Old Military Road, referred to as the Medium-Term Solution (MTS) for the A83 Rest and Be Thankful scheme. Phase 1 of the MTS involves the construction of a new connector road to the southern end of the Old Military Road which is underway. The programme for future phases of the proposed improvements is under development, with design works ongoing.

• AtkinsRéalis / WSP Joint Venture (Transport Scotland’s Technical Advisors)
• Winter Associates Ltd (Geotechnical)
• Nationwide Data Collection (Non-Motorised Users / Traffic Surveys)
• Geckoella Ltd (Invertebrate Surveys)
• Caledonian Conservation (Invertebrate Surveys)
• Apem Ltd (Macro fish surveys)
• Class One Traffic Management Ltd (Traffic management for topographical surveys)
• Scope Exhibitions (Public Exhibitions)
• Aecom (Geotechnical Certification)
• Jacobs Aecom Joint Venture (Preliminary Engineering Services and MTS preferred design option assessment)
• Raeburn Drilling & Geotechnical Ltd (now IGNE) (Phase 1 Ground Investigation contractor)
• EnviroCentre Ltd (Raeburn’s Ecological Clerk of Works)
• GUARD Archaeology Ltd (Raeburn’s Archaeological Clerk of Works)
• Terra Tek Ltd (part of the IGNE group) (Ground Investigation Laboratory Testing)
• Jacobs (Engineer for Phase 1 Ground Investigation works)
• BEAR Scotland (Construction contractor for Phase 1 of the MTS)

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.