The Ethics of the Strathy/Melvich Road Upgrade.

[Rheghead]

I have just gone west through Melvich to Strathy. The new road is being cut straight across virgin bog. My goodness why are they upgrading the road? I mean, it's not as if it carries a lot of traffic. The amount of peat that has been cut must mean that millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide has been released (if you believe what the anti wind brigade tell us)into the atmosphere. The road will no doubt be a 100 mph race track like the stetches towards Bettyhill, not much fun for a cyclist where no thought has gone into creating a cycle lane. Surely this wonderful coast deserves a cycle lane to attract tourism?

I would have thought this money should have been better spent on the A9 improvement?:confused

[MadPict]

Money left over from the roads coffers?

[emb123]

personally I'm not complaining at the idea behind upgrading the road as it had room to be better than it was (and certainly better than it is at the moment with the 30mph signs and road works), but there are infinitely worse (and more dangerous) stretches of the road than that particular bit.

A huge area round there was blackened or smouldering recently so they've no doubt caused a lot of damage so far.

You would be surprised however how much trafic it does carry (mainly construction traffic at the moment though LOL), but I do agree wholeheartedly that there are many areas which would benefit much more from the money.

[MadPict]

Maybe the roads dept are fans of Talking Heads?......



..."We're on the road to nowhere".....

[badger]

Probably for the Strathy windfarms which will be huge. Strathy North was advertised in January and Strathy South will follow. They'll need an access road I'm sure. Both roads and windfarms will do wonders for the peat [disgust]

[Murdina Bug]

from Caithness.org front page 13 March 2007 -
'Work began this week on the £3.4 million final phase of upgrading the A 836 North Coast road, between Melvich ~ Strathy, Sutherland. The Highland Council has awarded a 40-week contract to Highland Quality Construction to build 3.4 kilometres of modern two-lane carriageway at Melvich, which will include two new bridges and environmentally friendly features, such as otter culverts. Disruption to traffic movement should be minimal as most of the new road is being built "off line". Funding of £500,000 has been attracted from the European Regional Development Fund.'

I believe that it is to do with bettering the area for the people that live here, encouraging them to stay here and attract others to rural areas, so growing the community. It may not be a bit of road that you use a lot personally but don't begrudge the upgrades - they are long overdue! See - good things do come from being part of Europe (occassionally!).

[j4bberw0ck]

The amount of peat that has been cut must mean that millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide has been released (if you believe what the anti wind brigade tell us)into the atmosphere.

Surely that's only the case if it's burned? And to be honest when I rode through there on Saturday - dodging potholes, idiot car drivers and gravel all over the road - I'd be hard put to believe they've shifted anything like a million tons of peat - a few thousand perhaps. Wet peat (after a quick Google - hush at the back :lol: ) is as near as dammit 1 tonne per cubic metre. So a million tonnes is a cube 100m x 100m x 100m. Which is a sizeable hill. 50,000 truck loads, if you will.


Surely this wonderful coast deserves a cycle lane to attract tourism?

Lack of a cycle lane is a serious omission, yes. Keep cyclists out of the way of faster traffic, and vice versa.


I would have thought this money should have been better spent on the A9 improvement?:confused

I tend to agree with that, too. The north coast road is beautiful as it is - always has been.

[MadPict]

When was this road built?......
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UTF8&z=14&ll=58.653817,-3.12089&spn=0.034782,0.103683&om=1

:D

[Penelope Pitstop]

The Causwaymire road is a disgrace. It's full of pot holes and dips. You can see in quite a few places where the lorries bottom out on the dips. Maybe the road has sunk??

Whatever it could do with resurfacing.

[peter macdonald]

I believe that it is to do with bettering the area for the people that live here, encouraging them to stay here and attract others to rural areas, so growing the community. It may not be a bit of road that you use a lot personally but don't begrudge the upgrades - they are long overdue! See - good things do come from being part of Europe (occassionally!). Murdina too right the folks up there have paid a lot of road tax over the years Good luck to them!!
PM

[badger]

Surely that's only the case if it's burned?


Don't think so. Just digging it up is all that's needed.

[sweetheart]

The road upgrade, now fated, has an option left open. The old road could be marked as a bicycle path for tourism and blocked off for through traffic by large boulders. In this way, local traffic could continue to use the existing segments of the remaining old road, and as well, a 5 mile bicycle path over gentle slopes would be an OUTSTANDING tourism idea given the lovely vistas visible on the drive to strathy.

But likely, unless someone is smart, they'll destroy the old road and screw up
another missed opportunity.... A bicycle path would cost all but nothing,
about 20 6x6 marking posts, some purple paint, some road marking paint,
and crossings where crosses the new double lane road. Then the communities
of strathy and melvich would be able to walk or bicycle without being buzzed
by giant lorries and high speed traffic on the new speedway.

[gollach]

Don't think so. Just digging it up is all that's needed.

How does that work then?

If you dig up coal, you only release CO2 into the atmosphere by burning it. I had thought that if you dig up peat and dump it somewhere, all that happens is that the peat dries:confused:

[Rheghead]

There is a lot of cut peat just lying there from their excavations. Will they sell/give it to me, d'yer think?:confused

[sweetheart]

The local observers' been inspecting those peats, but they're not dried
and who's got the time to be shifting wet peats.