A901
From Roader's Digest: The SABRE Wiki
| A901 | ||||
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| From: | Leith (NT268758) | |||
| To: | Granton (NT236771) | |||
| Length: | 1.8 miles (2.9 km) | |||
| Meets: | A900, A902, A199, A903 | |||
| Highways Authorities | ||||
| Traditional Counties | ||||
| Route outline (key) | ||||
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Route : Leith - Granton
The A901 branches off the A900 at the Foot of Leith Walk and skirts the western fringe of Leith as Great Junction Street, heading through shops before crossing over the Water of Leith on Junction Bridge. Immediately after this, traffic lights mark the eastern end of the A902 (Ferry Road).
The A901 then becomes the tenemented North Junction Street, before meeting the A199 at another signal-controlled junction and heading west towards Newhaven and Granton as Lindsay Road. Tenements and an industrial estate mark this stretch and until the road was improved in the 1970s the original alignment had a dog-leg where it crossed the Edinburgh-Leith railway line; this can be seen on the south side of Lindsay Road, and immediately beyond is evidence of another re-alignment, the cobbled Annfield and Newhaven Main Street, complete with setts, heading west through Newhaven (though not quite meeting up as the original road is now closed off at its western end). Here Lindsay Road becomes Newhaven Place then Pier Place, crossing a roundabout then heading past new-build flats and the former Harry Ramsden restaurant before following the south side of the Firth of Forth (the towers of the Forth Bridges can be seen from here on a clear day).
Another traffic roundabout at the foot of Craighall Road (where the closed-off section of Newhaven Main Street also appears) is crossed and the road becomes Starbank Road. After another quarter of a mile an S-bend at the bottom of Trinity Road, controlled by signals to allow alternate one-way working (a throwback to the tram days) is reached. While this junction has been improved to some extent, the alignment of the road still seems to be the same as it was when the Granton Harbour branch line crossed over the road here - it's old alignment is now a grassy 'Beach Lawn' along the shore side of the road. There must be some reason why the road wasn't realigned to make it more or less straight, and so dispense with the signals, when the bridge was removed and the railway lifted.
The last stretch of the A901 follows the serpentine-like Lower Granton Road to its terminus at Granton Square. The square is laid out as a large roundabout with a total of 6 roads joining including the short A903 which also terminates here.
(By continuing along the shore along West Harbour Road and Marine Drive to Silverknowes, evidence can be found of an aborted project to take the road west to Cramond - a dead-end dual-carriageway spur of Marine Drive west of Silverknowes Road.)
