Project Details

Description

Maintenance activities are required beyond the trunk road boundary on land under mixed private ownership and Scottish Ministers’ land ownership adjacent to the A898 (Station Road), between Old Kilpatrick and Mountblow in West Dunbartonshire. The works are proposed to mitigate recurrent footway and field waterlogging that occurs following periods of heavy rainfall. This issue arises predominantly from an overgrown ditch located within Scottish Ministers’ land, along with field drain outlets that have become obstructed due to vegetation growth and tree root ingress.

The deteriorated condition of the existing fence line currently prevents the adjoining agricultural land from being safely utilised for livestock purposes.

The works will be undertaken in phases. Activities included within Phase 1 are outlined below, while the scope of Phase 2 is still to be confirmed:

Site access will be taken from Braes Road, with Phase 1 construction activities consisting of the following:

  • Set up the construction area, including placement of a welfare unit on hardstanding at Braes Road;
  • Remove the vegetation necessary to facilitate the removal and replacement of approximately 610m of timber boundary fencing between Braes Road and North Dalnottar Cemetery, including the section crossing the Antonine Wall;
  • Remove existing timber boundary fence and transport to a licensed disposal facility. Within the Antonine Wall Scheduled Monument, fence removal will be undertaken by hand at ground level; mechanical removal will be used outwith the Scheduled Monument;
  • Clear additional vegetation between the south side of the drainage ditch and the existing fence line to allow ditch clearance works and minimise future regrowth. This will include removal of selected trees located between the footpath and the ditch;
  • Install approximately 570m of temporary fencing along the north side of the footpath. Within the Scheduled Monument, this temporary fence will consist of free-standing Heras fencing;
  • Undertake drainage investigations, including clearance of the approximately 440m ditch and investigations to locate and expose field drain outlets, the current number of which is unknown. Field drain tails will be cleared back to the north side of the footpath where feasible, and;
  • Complete site clean-up.

Trees located to the south of the ditch will be retained to prevent any potential impacts on slope stability. A forestry mulcher will be utilised to remove vegetation within the ditch, reducing material to brown soil that can subsequently be cleared during the ditch cleaning operations. Along the remaining fence lines, vegetation will be cleared to a width of approximately 1.5m on either side of the fence.

Plant and machinery anticipated for use on site include:

  • Chainsaws;
  • Mini digger
  • Tracked chipper;
  • Forestry mulcher;
  • Excavator, and;
  • Tracked post knocker.

As all plant and machinery will be tracked and will operate within the established footway boundary, the need for onsite ground mats has been deemed unnecessary.

Works are expected to be undertaken during daytime hours, with specific construction dates still to be confirmed. Phase 1 is planned to commence prior to March 2026. The overall duration of works remains to be finalised; however, the indicative durations for each phase are as follows:

  • Landscaping and removal of the existing fence are expected to take approximately three to four days.
  • Ditch clearing activities are also anticipated to require three to four days.

As construction works are located outwith with the trunk road boundary, traffic management measures will not be required to facilitate the proposed activities.

The scheme is located between Old Kilpatrick and Mountblow, covering an area of 2,440m2, in West Dunbartonshire. The scheme extents can be found at the following National Grid References (NGRs) (Figure 1):

  • Scheme start - NS 47071 73161
  • Scheme end - NS 47554 72858