Road works update – 25 November onwards

A roundup of works underway or soon to start around Orkney.

Work is ongoing on the Harray Road (A986) to fix a collapsed culvert which has been causing flooding between Grimeston Road and Refuge Corner.

Steel-plating in place over the road until the crews return to finish the culvert replacement, at which point temporary traffic lights will be reinstated. Drivers are asked to heed any 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.

We have a revised schedule of works and completion dates for the works at the B9055 Brodgar Road. Signed diversion routes will be in place for the duration via Harray and Dounby (the A986) or A967 Sandwick Road, and at times via 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) - 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 and resources

• Phase 1 layby at Standing Stones of Stenness to Ring of Brodgar car park  - complete.
• Phase 2 Ring of Brodgar car park to access to Buckan Cottage – complete.
• Phase 3 Buckan to Lyking Road – work has been suspended as of yesterday (24 November) due to the lack of availability of hired plant that is required. Works are planned to restart on 5 December.
• Phase 4  Lyking Road to A967 - due to the suspension of work on Phase 3, work on Phase 4 began this morning (25 November) ahead of schedule.

Weather-related disruptions to the Council’s festive lighting programme means we have some new dates.

• Pierhead to Graham Place, Stromness – complete.

• Cromarty Square, St Margaret’s Hope, the work will be carried out under short duration road closures to minimise disruption to bus and ferry traffic. This started on 22 November.

• A plant breakdown led to delays for Kirkwall – the festive displays in Albert Street, Bridge Street, Broad Street, Main Street and Victoria Street, are expected to be completed on the evening of Tuesday 29 November.

Work on the retaining wall at the junction of Hammar Road and the A966 is underway with work expected to take until the end of February 2023 to complete. Traffic delays will be extended slightly as the area covered by traffic lights has been extended to enable the work to be carried safely.

Work has also started on repairing a streetlighting fault in the vicinity of the Glaitness cycle path, with the possibility of closure at times to enable works to be carried out safely – these will be kept to a minimum.

Christmas Tree Lighting Events involving road closures:

• 30 November - Stromness, sections of John Street and Victoria Street will be closed and a temporary one way system will be in place on Church road to enable traffic to travel from Victoria Street to Franklin Road between 17:30 and 19:30.
• 2 December - St Margaret’s Hope, Cromarty Square will be closed between 18:15 and 19:45.
• 3 December -Kirkwall, sections of Albert Street, Broad Street, Castle Street and Palace Road will be closed between 16:30 and 19:00.

Looking ahead:

Work is due to take place on Quoyloo Road between West Bain and Kierfiold Farm from 7 to 13 December 2022 under road closure conditions, a signed diversion route will be in place for the duration of the work on site. 

Work is planned to take place on the Yesnaby Road on 14 to 16 December 2022, with the road being closed for the duration. Delays to affected properties will be minimised when possible.

Resurfacing works on the Holm Road/Easdale Loan junction is planned to start on 4 January 2023, for around four days. (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.

Work is planned to start on the A964 between Scorradale Road and Gyre Road (in vicinity of Nealand Kennels) on 9 January 2023. It is likely the work will need to be carried out under road closure conditions, but this will be confirmed. Further details including impacts on school transport and/or public buses (Service 2 – Houton) will follow.

The Openreach works on the Yinstay Road, Tankerness, have been rescheduled to commence on 12 January 2023 with completion still hopefully by 21 January 2023. Further information on access during the work will be available shortly.