A83 reopens after Rest and Be Thankful landslide

Work continues to clear the landslide. Picture: BEAR Scotland

Motorists faced a detour of about 60 miles after heavy rain caused the landslip on to the A83 at Butterbridge in Argyll and Bute at around midday yesterday.

Response teams with excavation diggers cleared the road and it has now reopened with temporary traffic lights as engineers continue to monitor the situation.

First Minister Alex Salmond chaired a Scottish Government Resilience Committee meeting yesterday afternoon to assess how prepared Scotland is to respond to the impacts of the current and forecast weather conditions.

There are currently 29 flood warnings in place with heavy rain falling overnight affecting mainly the Borders and Tayside.

There has been widespread flooding to low-lying agricultural land and roads in a number of areas across western, central and southern parts of Scotland.

Environment and climate change minister Paul Wheelhouse said yesterday: “We have seen today a range of issues occurring at a local level and the response to each one has been swift.

“We continue to monitor the weather situation across the country closely and all our key stakeholders remain in a high state of readiness to deal with issues as they arise, and to respond quickly to any sudden change in conditions.”