I have been in touch with Scottish Water about the new mains being laid at the southbound entrance off the A92 into Newtonhill. I have received a number of complaints about the four weeks this is scheduled to take, and the difficulties it is causing drivers. I have also seen people driving into Newtonhill via the exit!

Here is what Scottish Water has just told me: “Regards the progress of the work, when we are digging the track for the new water main we have to take care to negotiate and avoid any other services located in the area.

“We also have processes and procedures we need to comply with around the swabbing, testing and sampling of the new pipe before we can connect each section to the network which can take anything between 3-5 days to carry out and receive the necessary sample results to allow any connection work to proceed.

“These factors mean that having more operatives on site wouldn’t really change the duration of the works.

“We hope to be in a position to complete the current phase of works involving the slip road closure before the planned 4 weeks however this depends on the current progress of the work so we are not in a position to guarantee that at this stage.

“Please be assured that we will only have the slip road closure in place for the minimum period necessary. “We really appreciate the patience and understanding of the residents during this time and would urge all drivers to please be responsible and comply with all signage and diversions in place.”

I also raised two other issues with Scottish Water, about traffic management and the problems with the traffic lights (which from time to time don’t work).

TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

“Regarding the current traffic management in place at Newtonhill we fully appreciate how inconvenient the closure of the southbound slip road into Newtonhill is to local residents/commuters.

“All traffic management in place is as per the approved traffic management plans for this section of works and done so in conjunction with both Bear Scotland and Aberdeenshire Council.

“We did include additional signage at the Muchalls junction at the request of Bear/Aberdeenshire Council to encourage commuters to follow the official diversion route. Unfortunately we aren’t able to legislate for drivers who choose not to follow the signage in place for the agreed diversion etc.

“This has been highlighted to our traffic management company and they will look to put out some additional signage near the Muchalls junction. However, as previously mentioned this does rely on commuters following these signs.”

TRAFFIC LIGHTS

“We are aware of issues with the traffic lights appearing to not work.

“Contraflow (our traffic management company) attended site twice on 30 March following calls relating to the lights not working. On both occasions the team observed the lights and they were working with no issues at all.

“Contraflow believe that on some occasions drivers may be jumping the lights, which trips the system trips the system resulting in the lights going to red. This is a safety mechanism with the lights and it usually then takes a few cycles for the lights to reset back to the original settings which can take a few minutes.

“However, they were also subsequently contacted when we received reports of the lights not appearing to work at all, and arranged a replacement set of traffic lights, which should have been installed this morning (31 March), all being well.”

Looks like we are all going to be patient while the work is carried out.

I would also add that I have had a number of Muchalls residents contact me to express their concerns about drivers doing u-turns on the dual carriageway at the Muchalls entrance. They have seen some near misses. As the Scottish Water statement says, there is a sign banning u-turns. Tailbacks on the fast lane … that’s a recipe for disaster.