Timber traffic pressure will be removed from local roads in the Loch Ard Forest area, south of Aberfoyle, thanks to the opening of a new access road.
The Hoish Access route, the result of a partnership between the Forestry Commission (working closely with Scottish Enterprise), Stirling Council, and the Stirling Timber Transport Liaison Group, is a former farm track which has been upgraded and extended to link to the main A81 and A811 highway.
More than half of the timber being transported from Lord Ard will now exit directly onto the main roads.
Previously, most lorries leaving the southern end of the forest used local toll roads which were not designed to take such heavy vehicles. Trucks exiting the northern end often drove through Aberfoyle to reach the winding A873.
Lord Ard and the neighbouring Loch Chon Forest are expected to produce about 65,000 tonnes of timber a year during the next few years.
