THE roads agency behind major works which caused severe delays on the A82 recently has hit back at criticism from members of the public.0

Scotland Transerv says the public were told “extensively” about the work in Dumbarton on the weekend of October 28 and 29.

And they were also warned about “significant delays” due to the £220,000 resurfacing works between Garshake Road and Greenhead Road in Dumbarton.

The works caused major delays to motorists’ journeys – with many of them stuck in A82 traffic for up to two hours.

Helensburgh’s MSP Jackie Baillie said “lessons must be learned” in the wake of the traffic chaos and asked why the works could not have been carried out overnight. But the organisation has this week hit back at some of the criticism.

But Evan Ferguson, Scotland TranServ’s planned maintenance manager, hit back at the critics saying: “Scotland TranServ worked closely with Police Scotland, the local authority, key stakeholders and held a public meeting with the local community to plan and schedule these works.

“The trunk road required a significant depth of treatment and therefore to have completed the project via overnight works only would have taken 18 nights.”

He added: “Motorists were advised in advance of additional journey times along the diversion route of 50 minutes, with significant delays also forecast for Dumbarton.

“Live journey time feeds on the diversion route were reported by Traffic Scotland, to whom we referred drivers for more immediate information on their social media and website feeds across the weekend.”

Paul Lynch, Scotland TranServ’s network manager added: “We will take stock of all the comments received and review procedures for similar resurfacing projects in future.”

Transport Scotland has agreed to carry out a review of the works.