Kessock Bridge to get £1.5m, 22-week paint job

A five month-long project to paint the Kessock Bridge in the Highlands is due to start on 17 February.

Road maintenance company Bear Scotland said the task, costing £1.5m, was not expected to cause any delays or other disruption to traffic on the crossing.

The 43-year-old bridge carries the A9 trunk road over the Kessock Channel between Inverness and the Black Isle.

About 30,000 vehicles go over the crossing every day, according to Transport Scotland.

Bear Scotland said the painting of steelwork would be done between 07:00 and 17:00 Monday to Sunday.

It said some work to clean up coatings of old paint would be done at times overnight from late March into April.

Ian Stewart, of Bear Scotland, said: "This painting work on Kessock Bridge will provide a protective coating over the structural steel, ensuring that the bridge continues to operate safely into the future.

"Our teams will carry out these works quickly, with safety as our top priority.

"We thank the local community and road users for their patience while we complete the improvements."

The 1,056m (3,465ft) crossing carries the A9 trunk road over a narrow sea channel between South Kessock in Inverness and North Kessock on the Black Isle.

It took four years to build and cost £25m - the equivalent of more than £100m at current prices with inflation factored in.

Before the bridge, a ferry had operated across the Beauly Firth between Inverness and South Kessock from the 15th Century.

North Kessock could also be reached by road from Inverness, but it was a trip of more than 20 miles (32km) around the shores of the Beauly Firth.

The last Kessock ferry sailed in July 1982 when the bridge was opened to traffic, and just weeks before the Queen Mother officially opened the crossing on 6 August.

At the time of its completion, the Kessock Bridge was the largest of its kind in Europe.

It was designed by German bridge engineer Hellmut Homberg to withstand extreme weather and potential earthquakes caused by geological movement in the Great Glen geological fault.