Forest safety works to impact A96 at the Tyrebagger
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Aberdeenshire road users are advised that major forestry works at Tyrebagger Forest, near Dyce, will see traffic management in place on the A96 and the B979 from Tuesday, August 15.
Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) in partnership with road network managers, AMEY, will clear wind-blown and unstable standing trees along the frontage of one of the regions’ worst storm-hit forests.
Extending as far as the trunk road, the affected forest area on the south side of the A96 was badly hit by Storm Arwen and Storm Corrie and is now susceptible to progressive windblow from any future storm events.
The size of the trees involved and their proximity to the main road requires road closures to ensure public safety.
From Wednesday 16 between 7pm and 5am, the A96 will see traffic lights in place that will enable short periods of closure – up to 10 minutes at a time – in both directions, for one week
Also starting from August 16 the B979 will be closed for two weeks.
Dan Cadle, FLS’ Harvesting, Forest Management and Stewardship Manager, said: “The scale of the damage caused by the storms of ’21 has been so great that we are still dealing with it.
"We’ve prioritised our work starting with the ‘highest risk’ areas and working our way through it all.
“We tackled the forest to the north of the main road last year and we are only now able to get to this area, which needs to be cleared up and made safe in case future storms cause even more damage that might seriously affect the road network and threaten public safety.
“Much of the tree felling work in the forest is far enough away from the road that it can be done safely without affecting road users. However, there are some very big and very heavy trees – some over 30 metres and weighing several tonnes – that are close enough to the road to require us to halt traffic.
“Public safety is always our top priority so the traffic management is unavoidable. We appreciate that there will be some inconvenience and apologise for that in advance.”
As well as clearing the damage to eventually re-open the forest to visitors, the felling work will remove the risk of windblow affecting the B979 and allow FLS to improve the parking facilities. The felling work will also remove the risk of windblow affecting the B979.
Many other, less well-visited forests in the area are still closed for safety reasons as a result of storm damage.
