Long serving Highland Council Resident Engineer, Bob Spence, was guest of honour at the formal opening of the final phase of the A830 Fort William - Mallaig road at Arisaig in recognition of his retirement after 36 years of supervising road, bridge and slipway construction projects in the Highlands.

Bob's last assignment was to oversee the construction of the Arisaig - Loch nan Uamh section. And to mark his contribution to the project and his loyal service, he was presented with a gift of a framed aerial photograph of the project from contractors, Morrison Construction Ltd. Bob was honoured by his Council colleagues at a separate retirement function.


Bob moved to the Highlands in 1973 when he took up a Council post as a graduate engineer in the Skye design unit. He joined the site/resident engineer's team in 1975, when he moved to Fort William.

A total of 130 contracts have been supervised since then, several running concurrently, with schemes on the A82 Loch Lochy and Ballachulish, the A86 Spean Bridge - Newtonmore road; various bridge schemes and slipways at Corran Ferry, Lochaber, and the island of Raasay, Skye.

The completion of all of the A851 Broadford - Armadale improvement phases was a significant achievement. A fitting finale was his supervision of the last section of the A830 Fort William - Mallaig road.

(GK/JM)