Road works update for week starting 17 October

Orkney Island Council’s Roads team is out and about continuing road works in the county – here’s a look at works to bear in mind for the week ahead, including impacts on public bus services. As always, we thank drivers for their patience and remind them to drive with care around anyone working on our roads.

There will be a road closure on Pickaquoy Road, between Junction Road and Great Western Road, from Monday 17 October to enable Scottish Water to carry out work on the foul sewer. Work is expected to take at least a week including weekends. There will be short signed diversions for all traffic including buses.

Work by Openreach to replace a manhole cover on Easdale Loan will start on Tuesday 18 October 2022, with the work expected to take up to three days to complete. In order for the work to be carried out safely, Easdale Loan will be closed for the duration of the work, with a diversion via Holm Road and Bignold Park Road. The No 4 bus service to the Airport will not serve Easdale Loan and will follow the diversion.

There will be road closures in place on the B9055 Brodgar Road from Wednesday 19 October, for around four weeks, for resurfacing works. Signed diversion routes will be in place for duration via Harray and Dounby (the A986) or A967 Sandwick Road, and the Lyking Road. These are relatively lengthy diversions so drivers should allow extra time for their journeys. The works will impact on public bus Service 8 (Quoyloo service). The service will be unaffected on Thursday 20 October, however from 21 October onwards on buses will not serve Brodgar Road and will follow the signed diversions.

The works will be carried out in four stages – please note the dates are indicative and subject to weather:

• Phase 1 Layby at Standing Stones of Stenness to Ring of Brodgar car park - 19 to 21 October
• Phase 2 Ring of Brodgar car park to access to Buckan Cottage - 21 to 26 October
• Phase 3 Buckan to Lyking Road - 27 October to 2 November
• Phase 4 Lyking Road to A967 - 3 to 9 November

Work is scheduled to take place on the A965 Finstown at the junction with Heddle Road from Thursday 20 October to Saturday 22 October. Traffic will be controlled with temporary traffic signals, with the bottom of Heddle Road closed at times - wherever possible any closures will be during the evening or on the weekend, with traffic diverted Grimond Road and Jewadale Drive.
Work is ongoing to the north of Norseman Village on the main A966 road to Tingwall. Temporary traffic lights are in place and drivers should allow for short delays.

Emergency works are ongoing on the Harray Road (A986) at Harray to fix a collapsed culvert which has been causing flooding on the road between Grimeston Road and Refuge Corner. Traffic is being controlled under temporary traffic lights - drivers are asked to heed speed signs for the safety of workers exposed to traffic. There will be slight delays for public bus Service 7 (Birsay-Dounby).

Work by Scottish Water is ongoing on Glaitness Road, Kirkwall, with temporary traffic lights in place.

Work on Liddle Road start on Friday 14 October 2022 and are expected to take four days to complete. The work will be carried out under road closure conditions with disruptions to affected properties minimised when possible.

Looking further ahead:

Work on Linksness Road, Stronsay, is currently planned to start on Monday 24 October 2022 with the work planned to take a week to complete, under road closure conditions. Given that Linkness Road is a single track road, closures will be kept to a minimum.

Work at the junction of Lynn Road and Deerness Road (A960) in Kirkwall starts on 31 October 2022 - traffic will be controlled by temporary traffic signals on Deerness Road and road closures on Lynn Road and Makenzies Drive.

Work is programmed start on 3 November 2022 on the A961 between Heathery Loan and Highland Park, it is hoped that the work in this area will only take a couple of days to complete with traffic being controlled by temporary traffic signals for the duration of the work.

Drainage survey work is planned to start on 14 November 2022 on Junction Road, Great Western Road and West Tankerness Lane, with the bulk of the work being carried out under road closure conditions, signed diversion routes will be in place as and when roads are closed.

Work is planned to take place on the Yesnaby Road on 17 & 18 November, with the road being closed whilst work is being carried out on site. Delays to affected properties will be minimised when possible.

Resurfacing works on the Holm Road/Easdale loan junction is planned to start on 21 November. (These are works rescheduled from October to allow Openreach to repair a manhole in the vicinity.) This will see Easdale Loan being closed to through traffic and temporary traffic lights in place. The No 9 Town service will experience minor delays, and there will be a short diversion for the No 4 Airport bus, but passengers will be able to pick the bus up at both the top or the bottom of Easdale loan.