News / Updated: Some Viking Energy construction work suspended following closure of Sandwater road
ALL construction work of the Viking Energy wind farm requiring the use of a stretch of the B9075 Sandwater road has been suspended after contractor RJ McLeod reported damage to a small bridge crossing the Burn of Pettawater.
Shetland Islands Council closed the road on Monday afternoon in the interest of public safety and pending an investigation and repair work to the parapet at the north side of the bridge.
“There is no access through Kergord between Weisdale and the Sandwater junction on the A970. All Kergord traffic must use the A971 access from Weisdale,” the council said in a statement.
The road is expected to be closed until later this week.
A spokesman for SSE Renewables added: “Investigations which will ultimately allow the B9075 to reopen are being undertaken in cooperation with the SIC roads department.
“In the meantime, all construction traffic requiring use of the bridge is suspended.”
Meanwhile Sustainable Shetland, the group opposing the construction of the large wind farm in the central mainland, said he had warned the council’s planning department of the expected strain on the single track road.
Its chairman Frank Hay said: “This failure of the bridge and the lorry slipping off the road last week merely confirms that the B9075 is unsuitable for construction traffic and that such prolonged use of the road by heavy vehicles should never have been permitted.”
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