A MET Office 'yellow weather warning' for heavy rain across parts of Helensburgh and Lomond this weekend has forced a recently-re-opened key road to close overnight.
BEAR Scotland, the maintenance team responsible for the A83 trunk route, says the road will be closed at the Rest and Be Thankful from early evening on Saturday, with traffic re-directed to the Old Military Road (OMR) diversion.
Around 60-70mm of rain is forecast across the north west of the country this weekend, with the 'yellow warning' remaining in place from 6pm on Saturday until midnight on Sunday.
Strong winds are also expected across the region with localised gusts of between 40-50mph forecast.
The A83 - a single lane of which only re-opened on Monday this week following a massive landslide last month - is expected to re-open on Sunday afternoon once the rain passes.
READ MORE: A83 re-opens following landslip repair work
BEAR Scotland said incident response teams are on standby throughout the north west to respond to any issues on the trunk road network.
Landslide patrols are being deployed across routes to provide additional response and monitoring of conditions on the ground, while all response teams will have pumps to deal with any excess water, with two gully tankers also available to help clear any larger incidents of flooding on the network.
Eddie Ross, BEAR Scotland’s North West representative, said: “Tomorrow’s yellow warning for heavy rain and high wind is expected to have an impact on the north west trunk road network, and our teams are on standby to deal with any issues that may occur from the heavy rain and strong winds.
“Due to the heavy rain we’ve also taken the difficult decision to close the A83 at the Rest and be Thankful as a safety precaution and redirect road users via the adjacent Old Military Road local diversion route from early evening tomorrow until the rain passes on Sunday afternoon.
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“The advice from our geotechnical experts is that the heavy rain could have an impact on the material in the steep channel above the road. This is the first significant rain event since the landslide in August so we are taking a safety-first approach and will carefully monitor the hillside during the weather event.
“We’re expecting to re-open the A83 under traffic light control as before on Sunday afternoon once the rain has passed.
“We have arranged for patrols of the network to be completed at affected areas through the warning period and we also have our incident response teams available to deal with any flooding issues across the north west network, as well as gully tankers and pumps on standby to help ensure trunk roads are kept clear.
“Our 24/7 control room team will also be monitoring conditions across the network to help coordinate resource where required and help keep motorists moving.
“We encourage all road users to plan ahead and check Traffic Scotland for the latest travel advice before setting out.”
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