There will be delays ahead for drivers in Darvel over the next few weeks, as work is carried out on West Main Street to strengthen a failing culvert under the road surface.

The work gets under way on Monday 18^th June, with the full programme of works is detailed below:

Monday 18th June – excavation of Burn Road and West Main Street. The work will last four days, Burn Road will be closed to through traffic and temporary traffic lights will be in place on West Main Street.
Monday 2nd July – the temporary bridging deck will be installed. This work will be carried out by wind farm developers appointed contractor, RJ McLeod and will take two weeks. Single way traffic will be controlled by temporary traffic lights.
August to September – movement of wind farm components. Two-way traffic will be maintained on West Main Street but speed restrictions may apply. The movement of the large vehicles will be escorted by the Police, where appropriate, which will minimise traffic disruption.
October – temporary diversion of water mains by Scottish Water which will take two weeks.
Mid October to late December – replacement of Matthews Burn Culvert. Temporary traffic lights will remain in place during the works to ensure the safety of the travelling public and maintain the flow of traffic.

The section of culvert which needs to be replaced is situated near to the junction between West Main Street and Burn Road. The replacement of the culvert has been made more complicated by the development of a wind farm at Bankend Rig which is situated south/ east of Loudoun Hill. The weakened culvert is unable to support the wind farm abnormal load vehicles which will be using the road to transport materials to the site of the wind farm.

To tackle this problem the temporary steel plate, which has been used short term to strengthen the culvert, will be removed and a temporary bridge deck will be installed to span the culvert. Once the wind farm vehicles have completed the delivery of materials the temporary deck will be removed and the culvert will then be replaced.

Will you be affected by the works? Or is the work necessary and good news for Darvel? Post your comments and have your say here on s1darvel