A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

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rileyrob
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by rileyrob »

I was sure that this has been mentioned elsewhere already - but I can't find it if it has. The Loch Lomond section of the A82 is currently closed during daylight hours during the week for various works. Details on Traffic Scotland.

I drove through yesterday, and there is a lot of progress already in evidence. From the south:
Approx a third of a mile of barrier replacement where the section was damaged in May.
Resurfacing on the bad bends south of Inveruglas (where the railway viaduct sits above the road).
Parapet repairs on damaged retaining wall / bridge.
Flood alleviation works appears to be removal of 200 year old retaining wall on hill side of road. Yesterday all that could be seen was piles of the neatly cut stones, with the bank scraped back and re-profiled. There could be a drainage system already installed, but I couldn't see anything.
Extensive sections of resurfacing around Ardlui and Inverarnan.
Lots of White lining.
Bridge refurbishment (appeared to be new parapet installation, presumably with works under the deck as well) in lower Glen Falloch.

There were probably other works in progress which are not really visible when driving, and it was dusk on the way back. From what I could see, it looks like the road will be substantially improved, within the tight confines of the landscape, and that the closures are worth it.
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

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Norfolktolancashire
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by Norfolktolancashire »

I finally drove this road from Inverness to the Eskine Bridge last weekend and noted the following:-

Fantastic scenery throughout! (I was spoilt with the snow on the mountains);

Terrible road surface between Tarbet and the north end of Loch Lomond, probably due to the previous days having snow cover and minus temperatures. I have never seen so many VERY deep potholes. This stretch is so poor in the width of the road too, how do commercial vehicles use this safely?;

Very little traffic, although this would be due to it being a wet winter Sunday;

Cracking long stretch of good quality road over Rannoch Moor with lots of overtaking potential;

Lots of laybys...something that in England the authorities seemed scared of, probably due to anti-social behaviour.

I drove up to Inverness using the A9 earlier that week also for the first time and that was a quicker route by far, so I can see why it is being made D2 to allow decent access to North and North West Scotland from the Central Belt, particularly for commercial traffic.
mark3evo
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by mark3evo »

I rode the A82 along Dumbarton

Filtering correctly in busy traffic between the inside and outside lane of dual carriageway

Suddenly I was riding what felt like a deep gutter between the 2 lanes
A less experienced rider may have lost control.
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rileyrob
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by rileyrob »

Heading down Loch Lomond yesterday evening, I noticed there are two barges moored alongside the road just before Inveruglas. The kit on them suggested they were being used to take cores of the underlying bedrock, presumably for more pulpit rock style road widening?
The only roadworks listed on Transport Scotland are pavement surveys!
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wrinkly
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by wrinkly »

There was this press release in January:

https://www.transport.gov.scot/news/con ... n-stretch/
clc
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by clc »

I noticed this in the Scottish govt’s draft IIP:
Double investment in bridge and roads maintenance: a programme of around £1.5 billion over 5 years to boost structural repairs and strengthen the network, improve road safety, deliver a range of improvements to our ITS infrastructure, and enhance key links such as the Tarbert to Inverarnan A82 section.
How should we interpret the A82 reference - routine maintenance or road widening? The extra £750 million would certainly cover the latter.

See page 38 - https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/d ... nload=true
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A303Chris
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by A303Chris »

clc wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 02:03 I noticed this in the Scottish govt’s draft IIP:
Double investment in bridge and roads maintenance: a programme of around £1.5 billion over 5 years to boost structural repairs and strengthen the network, improve road safety, deliver a range of improvements to our ITS infrastructure, and enhance key links such as the Tarbert to Inverarnan A82 section.
How should we interpret the A82 reference - routine maintenance or road widening? The extra £750 million would certainly cover the latter.

See page 38 - https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/d ... nload=true
I drove this last month for the first time on the way to climb Ben Nevis. Hopefully for that amount it is widening. The whole road is a good standard apart from Tarbet to Inverarnan, which to me was the only poor section of the A82. It is more country lane than trunk road
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clc
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by clc »

A303Chris wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 11:44
clc wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 02:03 I noticed this in the Scottish govt’s draft IIP:
Double investment in bridge and roads maintenance: a programme of around £1.5 billion over 5 years to boost structural repairs and strengthen the network, improve road safety, deliver a range of improvements to our ITS infrastructure, and enhance key links such as the Tarbert to Inverarnan A82 section.
How should we interpret the A82 reference - routine maintenance or road widening? The extra £750 million would certainly cover the latter.

See page 38 - https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/d ... nload=true
I drove this last month for the first time on the way to climb Ben Nevis. Hopefully for that amount it is widening. The whole road is a good standard apart from Tarbet to Inverarnan, which to me was the only poor section of the A82. It is more country lane than trunk road
There are plans to fully upgrade Tarbet-Inverarnan but as the paragraph I posted mentioned that section under ‘maintenance’ I wasn’t sure if it was a reference to the big upgrade project. Here’s hoping.
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by Altnabreac »

Kate Forbes MSP recently put out a survey to constituents asking some leading questions about what investments would people like to see in the A82.

Given she is also the Finance Minister and looking at how the survey was structured I interpreted it as signifying an imminent announcement of Tarbert to Inverarnan being progressed as a full scheme.
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by Uncle Buck »

“Enhance” seems to imply widening to me, and the price tag would surely correlate with that?

The Tarbert to Inverarnan section is pure Third World stuff. It’s okay if you’re driving along it on a clear summer morning but when it’s busy it’s just ridiculous with vehicles getting stuck and reversing. Even as an experienced, confident and dare I say it skilful driver I prefer A81/A84/A85 or A82/A83/A819/A85 depending on my destination.

Can I also suggest that the Balloch to Tarbert section would be improved by a roundabout at the northern Luss junction, and by a new overtaking lane. The current one is on a bend and is too short to overtake in anything with a small engine.
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by clc »

Altnabreac wrote: Thu Dec 03, 2020 12:10 Kate Forbes MSP recently put out a survey to constituents asking some leading questions about what investments would people like to see in the A82.

Given she is also the Finance Minister and looking at how the survey was structured I interpreted it as signifying an imminent announcement of Tarbert to Inverarnan being progressed as a full scheme.
I just had a look at that survey and I can see what you mean. Tarbet-Inverarnan realignment is more urgently needed than most of the A9 dualling schemes so it would be good to see it happening soon.
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by Altnabreac »

So finally there is some movement on the A82 Tarbert to Inverarnan scheme.

A story map has been published here as part of the DMRB Stage 3 Preferred Route Option Development Consultation:
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/83 ... f1b137b00c
(Doesn't't work on Safari for me but fine in Chrome).

Many pieces of good news:
  • 7.3m carriageway with 1m hard strips throughout the scheme, except in Tarbet and Ardlui.
  • Separate off road NMU route for the full length of the scheme.
  • Ambitious off road widening in several sections include new over loch viaduct sections.
  • New parking provision at Inveruglas and Ardlui for hill access
My only complaint is the absence of any parking provision at Stuckendroin for the Little Hills route up Ben Vorlich.

Overall this is a much more comprehensive and ambitious scheme than I was expecting to see.
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by FtoE »

Very good news - and not before time!
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by Glenn A »

The A82 seems to go completely backwards once the D2 ends at Loch Lomond and is poor quality all the way to Fort William. Considering the amount of tourists that use the road in summer, improvements are desperately needed.
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by solocle »

Rode it last month.
18BFE021-A344-43C2-8307-13B1795ECE6C.jpeg
2DCD9020-A39B-46DB-B170-771C19DAD4BD.jpeg
D0B7F39A-EEBD-4EB7-B7BA-0362D4161A6C.jpeg
I quite liked it - but it was quiet, not holiday season.
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by KeithW »

Glenn A wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 14:06 The A82 seems to go completely backwards once the D2 ends at Loch Lomond and is poor quality all the way to Fort William. Considering the amount of tourists that use the road in summer, improvements are desperately needed.
Before Pulpit Rock was widened to S2 yes you could claim it as a very frustrating road but not now in my opinion. The worst section of the road today is from Tarbet to Inveruglas where the road is very narrow and winding with rather unforgiving stone walls. Usually delays are down to the monster coaches that use the road, in the narrower sections there can be a lot of issues when two wide vehicles meet.

That said I consider Tyndrum to Glen Coe to be one of the best drivers roads in Britain with spectacular scenery and enough fast sections to make overtaking possible. Traffic levels are pretty light too. Shooting the bridges is a real challenge as fast progress means timing it right when you meet large oncoming vehiles. Yes its a bit slow from Ballachulish to Fort William but even on a bad day its only going to take between 20 and 30 minutes at worst. Apart from a bit of widening and straightening the northern Loch Lomond section what I would really like doing is having the trees thinned to open up the views,
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by Burns »

Had we been in Norway, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, okay, pretty much any other country in Europe, the A82 would have had a couple of tunnels built around Loch Lomond decades ago.

Just sayin'.
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by Altnabreac »

Glenn A wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 14:06 The A82 seems to go completely backwards once the D2 ends at Loch Lomond and is poor quality all the way to Fort William. Considering the amount of tourists that use the road in summer, improvements are desperately needed.
From Inverarnan up Glen Falloch to Crianlarich is lovely driving and then the bypass is good as well.

Crianlarich to Tyndrum is a bit windy in places but nothing too difficult.

Tyndrum to Loch Tulla is genuinely gorgeous, sweeping fast roads.

Tulla Water needs another bridge and a then a new climbing lane up to Rannoch Moor. (2 miles)

Rannoch Moor to Glencoe is genuinely the best road to drive in the UK, albeit there's 4 bridges that would be good to see widened like the Loch Ba one was done back in 2010.

Glencoe and Ballachulish are cleverly bypassed and the road is fast along to the Ballachulish Bridge.

North Ballachulish to Corran is wiggly and narrow but given the 40 limit and semi urban sprawl its not a difficult drive.

Corran to Kiachnish is the next substandard bit and needs straightened and widened. (5 miles)

So I make it something like 7 miles of the 57 miles that need improvement plus some bridge replacements.

Tarbet to Inverarnan is by far the worst section but once you're past Inverarnan its really not a bad drive to Fort William.
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Re: A82 from Glasgow to Fort William be Britain's worst road?

Post by Truvelo »

As others have mentioned, Rannoch Moor is a delight to drive if forcing your way past backmarkers is your thing. Better still is being there in the winter when there's very few tourists around to get in the way and the scenery is more dramatic.
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