Consultants have been awarded a contract to develop a long-term replacement for the A83 in the Rest and Be Thankful.
The trunk road has been plagued by landslides for many years, and during recent heavy rain traffic has again had to use the single-track Old Military Road diversion.
Transport Scotland considered a wide range of alternative routes before finally settling on continuing to use Glen Croe.
Five possible route options have been identified, potentially including a tunnel or debris shelter.
Now a contract award notice has been published on the Public Contracts Scotland website for consultants to provide services supporting delivery of a new length of trunk road at the Rest, with a value of £11.3m.
The contract has been awarded jointly to Atkins Ltd of Glasgow and WSP of Edinburgh.
The contract notice states: “The consultant is required to provide Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) scheme assessment work, assist in the promotion of the statutory consents and the procurement of contracting services. The consultant is required to provide site supervision services.
“Transport Scotland wishes to address current accessibility issues in the corridor as quickly as possible and the consultant will be required to advise on methods to shorten the development and promotion process.
“In addition, an interim proportionate route is also required to be delivered to provide additional resilience whilst the long-term scheme is being developed.
“Some options development and scoping is underway and the consultant may be required to develop this work into a deliverable scheme to a short timeframe.”
Last month Argyll and Bute Council called for the new route to be complete before the next Scottish Parliament election, in May 2026.
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