Roads update for week starting Monday 20 May 2024

A look ahead at road closures and delays due to works, events and cruise to bear in mind from the week starting Monday 20 May 2024.

Events: 

Looking slightly ahead, there will be road closures in Kirkwall and Stromness during May for these upcoming community events:

• Friday 17 May in central Kirkwall between 11:30am and 1:30pm, for Norwegian Constitution Day festivities. Closures will affect Albert Street; Bridge Street; Broad Street; Castle Street (car park exit to Broad Street); Palace Road (Watergate to Broad Street); Tankerness Lane (one way section only); and Victoria Street (Broad Street to Victoria Road). For more details on the closure, read the public notice.
• From Thursday, 23 May 2024 to Monday 27 May 2024 in central Stromness, for the Orkney Folk Festival. Closures will affect Ferry Road, Victoria Street, John Street as well as some parking bays. For more details read the public notice. 

Road works

A961 at Scottish Water storage tank near Oakdale

There’s ongoing emergency works by Scottish Water near the water storage tank near Oakdale (on the high point of the A961 between St Marys and Kirkwall, near the woolly pigs) – work should be finished up by Friday this week (17 May) but may continue into early next week.

A964 between Smoogro Road to Orphir Village

Works started on 12 April 2024 to address defects on a two mile stretch of the A964 between the 30mph signs on the east (Kirkwall) side of Orphir village and the junction with Smoogro Road. Work is expected to take several weeks to complete and at times will involve full but short duration road closures – however work will mostly be carried out under traffic lights, with some delays to all traffic including the No 2 Houton Ferry bus service. Smoogro Road will remain open for use by vehicles throughout the works.

Holm Road (A961), Kirkwall

To enable maintenance works at the Highland Park Distillery there will be multiple short duration road closures from 15 April 2024 to early November 2024. The current plan is that the closures will be up to a maximum duration of 20 minutes with the closures being carried out at times to try and avoid school transport, ferry traffic, commuter traffic and bus services.

A960, St Andrews and Toab 

Scottish Water works are still ongoing but will be mainly off A960 and in fields during the next week.

Whitechapel Lane, Kirkwall

Whitechapel Lane will close from 1 May 2024 to 31 December 2024, between Victoria Street and Junction Road, as needed for property building works. View the traffic order here.

Looking Ahead:

Surface Dressing 2024

Preparatory works have started on our surface dressing sites for this year, with much of the works being carried out on the quieter roads under short duration road closures. Further information will be provided on the proposed traffic management for the busier roads in due course.

The surface dressing works are scheduled to start on Monday 24 June 2024, the approximate site location are as noted below. Further details of traffic management and dates for the various surface dressing sites will be provided in due course.

• A966, Birsay
• Hundland Road, Birsay
• Netherbrough Road, Harray
• Stoneyhill Road, Harray
• East Road, Kirkwall
• Foreland Road, Kirkwall
• Marwick Drive, Kirkwall
• Mooney Drive, Kirkwall
• Germistion Road, Orphir
• A967, Sandwick
• Brodgar Road, Sandwick
• Swartland Road, Sandwick
• A961, South Ronaldsay
• Shore Road, St Andrews
• Garson Road, Stromness

Cruise

There will be road closures in central Kirkwall between 10am and 4pm, on Thursday 23 May (Bridge Street and Albert Street) for pedestrian safety during a cruise liner visit. (A visit on 20 May is longer taking place.) You can preview the anticipated closures for this season, in our public notice (traffic order).