Strategic Timber Transport Funds – eleventh awards June 2013 - March 2014

1. B836 East - West Cowal

Summary of Project This project will improve 10 kilometres of the B 836 linking the A886 at Glendaruel with the A815 at Sandbank. A weight restricted section at the head of Loch Striven, currently prevents the use of the B836 as a through route and timber traffic is diverted additional miles on less than suitable roads via Loch Eck and Strachur. The improvements will remove the restriction on the B836 and bring the road up to Agreed Route standard enabling its use as a strategic timber haulage route across Cowal. The B836 is expected to take over 600,000 tonnes of timber by 2024 and up to 1 million tonnes by 2034.

The B 836 is the only east to west public road for the Cowal peninsula. The improvements will rationalise the timber lorry traffic heading to Sandbank for onward shipping to processors in and abroad. A biomass power plant at nearby Dalinlongart is scheduled for completion in spring 2016 with an annual intake of 70,000 tonnes of short roundwood . The road can also direct timber west towards Portavadie pier and a local producer of woodchip fuel and direct timber via the A815 to processors north and east.

Award £781,382 Total Project Value £1,562,764

Co-finance Argyll & Bute Council, Development & Infrastructure Services

2. B871 Garvault Bridges Improvements

The 25km long B871 links the remote communities of and Syre in Central . It provides access from Rimsdale, Syre and Naver forests to the A897 to road at Kinbrace and is a critical element in the wider Flow Country strategy for timber transport. Much of the B871 floats on the underlying peat and substantial work has been done previously to ensure that the road could carry the 100,000t of timber already taken out. Recent work includes STTS funding to provide larger and additional passing places to enable timber trucks to pass. Two small bridges are now showing signs of distress and require either a weight restriction or repairs. A weight restriction would create a very long and fragile diversion for HGVs and render timber extraction unviable. The project will strengthen the two masonry arch bridges either side of the Garvault Hotel maintaining access to a forecast 650,000 tonnes of timber over the next 15 years.

Award £26,000 Total Project Value £52,000

Co-finance The Council

3. Flow Country Haul Road

Summary of Project

The Flow Country Haul Road is situated in North Sutherland, Highland Region, linking the A897 road near Kinbrace with the B870 near Westerdale and east to the A9 trunk road. The 33km forest road crosses 12 legal ownerships and will service at least 14 separate forests in Sutherland and provide direct access to 974,000 tonnes of currently landlocked timber and allow through traffic from forests further west. The project will upgrade a stretch of 26km of existing forestry road to enable all year timber transport and put in place a framework of access agreements to enable full use of the road. The upgraded stretch of road links with the existing Braehour link road which received STTS support in 2012. The Flow Country Haul Road will take timber traffic off 44 kilometres of weak public roads and direct 77,920 lorry movements clear of communities along the Helmsdale to Melvich road over the next 20 years. Harvesting the timber will assist peatland restoration of RSPB-owned forest at Dyke and Forsinain.

Award £357,955 Total Project Value £567,200

Co-finance Several forest owners served by the forest road.

4. Grampian Pre-emptive Drainage Programme

Summary of Project

The Grampian Pre-emptive Drainage Programme is a project initiated by the Grampian Timber Transport Group which aims to sustain future timber extraction along 24.8km of strategic routes within Moray. The project will undertake 16 individual works on thirteen C and U-class roads including drainage improvements, ditching, a new culvert, widening of a bellmouth and realignment of a junction. The works are focused on Agreed Routes identified collectively by The Moray Council and the forest industry as being high priority roads. The works will maintain access to more than 140,000m 3 of timber over the next 10 years. The project will help minimise disruption to local communities and the forest industry by taking proactive steps to manage the public road network in advance of forecast harvesting operations.

Award £105,750 Total Project Value £211,500

Co-finance The Moray Council

5. Landing Craft Timber Transport Project

Summary of Project

This project will spearhead a new method of timber transportation from the west coast of Scotland by means of a Landing Craft. It will access forests which are landlocked (either by sea or by inappropriate transport infrastructure) and where the construction of roads is rendered impractical and/or uneconomical.

Two major timber purchasing companies UPM Tilhill, Adam Wilson & Son Ltd have joined with forest owners and Troon Tugs, to deliver the project. Troon Tugs will use a large capacity (600 tonne) landing craft which can access, directly onto the shoreline, remote coasts and sealochs where the landlocked timber is located.

The project involves the construction of temporary “bunds” made up of gabion cages which provides support for the landing craft ramp to enable the transfer, by wheeled timber loader, from a shore-based timber storage area.

Ten sites have been identified for this project (all but one within the Inner Clyde) and the project will shift 150,000 tonnes to processors in Troon over two years. If the experience is successful it is hoped that the approach can be rolled out over a wider geographic area of the West Coast.

Award £206,500 Total Project Value £ 413,000

Co-finance Several forest owners.