Comhairle nan Eilean Siar PRESS RELEASE 16 June 2000 For Use: Immediately

Workers on the 1.6 km causeway project between the Hebridean islands of Eriskay and South Uist this week started pushing the foundations of the link northward across the Sound of Eriskay.

Work began at the start of May preparing landfalls both north and south of the strait but construction work on the crossing itself has now begun. Included in the £8.6m project -are ferry terminals on Eriskay and Barra for a vehicle ferry, the last link in north/south communications between the Western Isles.

There are now 25 people employed on the scheme which also involves approach roads totalling 1.1km on South Uist and on Eriskay itself.

The causeway will carry a two-track road, a new water main and mains electricity - replacing the existing underwater cable.

The causeway to Eriskay is the largest civil engineering project of its type under way in the United Kingdom. It is the latest in a series of fixed links built in the Western Isles.

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has put £2 million into the project with £4.1 million coming from the Scottish Executive’s transportation challenge fund and the rest from European Objective 1 (£2.8 million) and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (£500,000).

Ends

Issued by Nigel Scott
Communications Officer