Possible road closures as weather conditions worsen
Date: 13 February 2021
Time: 10:58
The Council’s Roads Team are in discussions with Police Scotland over possible roads closures as conditions worsen in areas of the county.
Thankfully, it’s the weekend and we are hoping many more folk will be able to stay home and safe as the message is clear – do not travel other than for essential reasons only.
The wind has taken its toll with drifting snow having filled in many roads across the county – we have had gritter crews out overnight in a bid to keep some of our main priority 1 routes clear. However, it’s a bit of a vicious circle at the moment with snow filling in as soon as it’s cleared.
The crews will be working on and will continue to plough/board and treat throughout the day.
It really is pretty nasty out there so for everyone’s safety and to try and prevent vehicles from becoming stuck, which in turn hampers onward efforts, we continue our appeal for folk to bide home if at all possible.
Here are some of the worst hit areas that we know of at the moment – but remember things can change quickly:
- Sunnybank – blocked.
- Howe Stromness – blocked.
- A967 Voy – Twatt – blocked, we have a loadall heading to clear this area.
- B9052 (No1 barrier to St Andrews School) we have a loadall heading to clear this area, it will then be attempting to clear the Airport road.
- Airport road – bad drifting.
- Kirkwall to Holm – bad drifting we have had two machines with ploughs working on this road for the past hour or so, it is drifting in, we are having issues with a back log of cars (from the Holm end).
- Finstown to Kirkwall – a lorry is stuck at Quanterness.
- Evie – heavy drifting.
- Birsay – bad drifting especially around the new and old community centres.
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