A835 Check Rail Corner Repair - Community Raising Concerns

Garve and District Community Council

Added at 12:28 on 28 July 2026

In light of the information which has been shared with us today we have written to Bear Scotland as follows;-

Please can we have an update on what is happening with the repair on the A835 by Loch Garve?

I ask because there has been no tangible action there for some time and today, we have heard locally that 2 chaps who were working on the road no longer are.
Those 2 chaps have said the company they were working for has not been paid. They had driven up from Glasgow to collect their belongings and are returning to Glasgow.

As you will imagine this is causing further concern to the community who are still using a road reduced to one lane, temporary traffic lights are still causing issues and despite all the blame being apportioned to people jumping the lights - the system in place is failing our community and trunk road users.

In view of this we would like an update please-
Is the contractor still the same contractor appointed in January 2026 - Track Civil Engineering Solutions?
Why has there been no one working on the site for some time - day or night?
Is this repair still contracted to be completed by November 2026?

As always we will keep you updated as soon as a reply is recieved.

Please note ....
The letter we shared from Alison Irvine Transport Scotland to Maree Todd MSP makes mention of repair being delayed to March 2027.
https://bit.ly/CRC-AI-MT-23July2026
We have had no notice of this from Bear Scotland 


Update Received from BEAR via email 12.50pm 30th July 2026 - verbatim as received

At Garve we have been delayed due to some vegetation loss and soil washout while working on the slope after the heavy rain event at the end of June. Network Rail required us to stop work until remediation measures could be agreed and implemented to protect the railway line. We are now close to getting back on site to implement this and continue work however we still require Network Rail's final review and approvals.
Regarding the 2 workers you mention, unfortunately I'm unable to comment on that however we are still working well with our Sub-Contractor and will continue on once given the green light from Network Rail.  After our recent delays on site our programme is looking toward a March 2027 completion date. 

It is very difficult to understand how a delay which began just one month ago can now result in a further 4 months delay on completion!!