'There is clearly a serious problem here' – more holes raise concerns that Thurso road could collapse
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Urgent action is being called for in a Thurso street that it is feared could be on the verge of collapse.
At least two holes have opened up over the last two months on either side of Sir Archibald Road, with the most recent appearing following heavy rainfall during Storm Babet at the weekend.
It is believed that a damaged underground water pipe or culvert could be the cause and may be undermining the foundations of the road.
The first hole appeared in late August near the top of Sir Archibald Road, close to its junction with the A836 and across from Sir George's Park.
Thurso and Northwest Caithness councillors Ron Gunn and Matthew Reiss visited the site at the weekend after being alerted to further problems following a flood in the area.
The pair have notified Highland Council’s roads department, which is continuing to investigate the problem.
Cllr Gunn said the original hole was initially around 12 inches in diameter, but had since been excavated by a contractor brought in by the council.
He said: “There’s a pipe that goes down Mountpleasant Road and down to the river, and this hole is on that route.
“They dug the hole up and made it quite a large hole because they had to have it investigated. I think it’s between Scottish Water and Highland Council as to what pipe it is.
“But the other concern is that there’s a substation not that far away, just bedside this house, maybe 30 yards away. The couple at the house told us that water was bubbling up out of the ground inside the substation, so there’s obviously some kind of problem underneath.”
A second hole that opened up beside the road after the weekend storm has led to further concerns due to the number of HGVs and farm traffic that uses Sir Archibald Road.
Cllr Gunn added: “I had a look at this second hole and it’s quite a big one too – and it’s sort of opposite the original one, either side of Sir Archibald Road, so my concern is what is the surface like under the road.
“The two holes are at either side of the road, and there’s a lot of heavy traffic uses it – there’s a coal yard down there, there’s a scrappy, Caithness Livestock Breeders, and a council yard, so there’s a lot of heavy traffic.
“I would like some kind of reassurance that the situation is not going to get worse.
“We need to – excuse the pun – get to the bottom of it to find out exactly what’s causing this, because it’s a relatively new thing, and for the reassurance of the house owners in the neighbourhood as well.”
Roads campaigner Iain Gregory has also said that something needs to be done before the problem becomes even more serious.
The co-founder of Caithness Roads Recovery (CRR) said: "During Saturday afternoon and evening, CRR were handling a vast number of contacts in relation to the flooding issues across the far north. About 5pm we received an urgent message from residents in Sir Archibald Road, relating to the ‘sink hole’ which we had highlighted to the council in late September.
“We were informed that water was gushing out of the hole, that a new sink hole had appeared at the other side of the road, and that water was also pouring from a hole in the driveway of the adjacent house, and the garden was rapidly filling with water.
“We made immediate contact with councillors Ron Gunn and Matthew Reiss, who acted swiftly to call out road crews.
"I visited the location on Sunday and found that the original hole is now massively enlarged, a further sink hole has appeared at the other side of the road, the pavement has now collapsed into the pit, and I found evidence of a third sink hole in the rough ground adjacent to the house.
“There is clearly a serious problem here, and urgent action is required before the entire road collapses. I would submit that it doesn't actually matter at this point who is responsible – we need action now and the debates can take place later."
A Highland Council spokeswoman said: “Our local roads team are aware of this issue and are looking at what the cause is. The bad weekend weather has had an impact on it and the team have reassessed the site this morning [Monday] and will continue to monitor it.”
A spokesperson for Scottish Water said its teams would follow up with the council to see if its investigations had revealed the origin of the problem.
They added: “Our local team investigated last month at the request of the Highland Council’s roads team and didn’t find any apparent link between the subsidence and Scottish Water’s infrastructure in the area. We updated the council of our findings and advised that we would always take on responsibility for repairs in the event that any link with the public sewer network was found.
“We will continue to engage with and support the council if required, but we are not able to carry out remedial work unless the problem is linked with the public sewer or drinking water networks that serve our customers.”
