Rest and Be Thankful closed overnight as heavy rain expected

A key route through Argyll will be closed overnight as heavy rainfall is expected in the area.

The A83 Rest and Be Thankful was shut at 4pm on Saturday and will remain so until Sunday afternoon.

The road had just reopened on Monday after a landslide in August forced a five week closure.

However, with the Met Office issuing a yellow warning at 6pm on Saturday until Sunday night, a decision has been made to close the road as a precaution.

STV meteorologist Sean Batty said up to 60mm of rain could fall in the Rest and Be Thankful area, before adding: “Combined with strong winds blowing onto the western side of the mountains the ground here is likely to become very saturated once again.”

Traffic will be diverted to Old Military Road until 9pm, however, from then it will close and traffic will be diverted to A82, A85 and A819 until a review at 7am on Monday.

Eddie Ross, Bear Scotland, said: “Our teams are on standby to deal with any issues that may occur from the heavy rain and strong winds.

“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 reopen the A83 under traffic light control as before on Sunday afternoon once the rain has passed.”

Bear Scotland incident response teams are on standby in the north west to respond to issues on the trunk road network.

Landslide patrols have also been deployed across routes to monitor conditions.

The brunt of the downpour in Scotland is to be felt in the west, with the worst of it to fall on Saturday night and into Sunday.