B969

This article is about the current B969 in Glenrothes.
For the former B969 near Balmoral in Aberdeenshire, see B969 (Balmoral).

The B969 is a distributor road serving the western side of the New Town of Glenrothes. The road dates to the growth of the New Town in the 1970s.

Route

Western Ave

The route starts to the north of the town on the A92, where a gap in the central reservation provides access to/from the southbound carriageway. This is the only important junction on the route which isn't a roundabout. From here the B969 heads southwest along Western Avenue, one of those typical new-town distributors where the verge on the left-hand side looks suspiciously wide. A couple of bridges also provide space for the unbuilt other carriageway (see History below). The route continues along Western Avenue, crossing the Coul Roundabout and Pitcoudie Roundabout, each providing access to residential areas, although few buildings are actually visible from the B969.

After crossing the A911 at Leslie Roundabout the road continues south, now apparently planned as S2 as is obvious when it crosses the River Leven Suspension Bridge. The next section is the longest between roundabouts, but then Glenwood Roundabout, Tanshall Roundabout and Caskieberran Roundabout come in quick succession, the last predominantly serving the industrial estates that lie to either side of the last leg of the B969. The route then ends at the large Southfield Roundabout on the B921, which was planned to have been grade-separated.

History

The B969 in Glenrothes has a complex history. The first use of the number in the new town appears to have been for Leslie Road and Queensway, the current line of the A911, as shown on the 1969 One Inch and 1976 OS Landranger Maps. A few years later, the route included Pitteuchar Drive and Rothes Road, although it is not clear if these two routes existed simultaneously. This route lay to the east of the current line, running south from the A911 in the town centre to the B921 at the Stenton Roundabout. By the mid 1980s, this had been extended north, after a multiplex along the A911, to reach the A92. This new section followed the current route. Later still, the current southern route was built on what was largely a green stripe through the sprawling housing estates that had presumably been left for the purpose. Nevertheless, some of the route seems to have been across the school playing field. The River Leven Suspension Bridge opened as recently as 1995.

Of the current route, the entire road was originally planned to be a dual carriageway called the Western Freeway. All the junctions would have been grade-separated apart from Tanshall Roundabout, which wasn't in the original plans. The junction with the A92 would also have been grade-separated but this was changed to an at-grade junction early on. Glenrothes suffered a similar fate to other new towns of the period where the road network was scaled back owing to the town not reaching its anticipated size.

Look carefully though and there are remnants of the original proposals to be seen in places. At Pitcoudie Roundabout the distinct curvature of Formonthills Road is based on the shape of the planned slip road for the northbound carriageway.