B9146

The now-unclassified former B9146 Shore Street

The B9146 was a short link road in the north of Inverness.

Previously identified from an incorrect sign which survives on Harbour Road in Inverness, it is now known that the western end of Harbour Road was the B9146, not the B9164 as the sign states. An Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 Inverness town map from 1986 shows the B9146 running west along Harbour Road from the roundabout with the B865 (now A82) and then turning south down Shore Street to the new Shore Street Bridge roundabout, from where it was the dominant number in a multiplex with the B9161 across Waterloo Bridge and along Grant Street. There was also a short spur along Portland Place. After leaving the B9161 it formed a one-way system using Lochalsh Road (southbound) and Telford Road and Pumpgate Street (northbound) to meet the A862. On the 1988 OS Landranger, the road is shown as an unnumbered B road, following the same route, except that Portland Place is no longer shown as a B road. The new bridge over the River Ness, now carrying the A82, is shown as unclassified, with the Shore Street to Rose Street section unbuilt as yet. Therefore the B9146 clearly played an important part in moving traffic around Inverness for a short period of time.

The 1967 edition of the 1-inch Seventh Series map does not show any of this route as a B road, except for the multiplex with B9161. However, in the 1970s, when the A9 still came through the centre of Inverness, various attempts were made to relieve town centre congestion and signpost bypass routes, so the B9146 presumably dates from that time.

To confuse matters, the 1988 Readers Digest Atlas shows all of the above as unnumbered B roads, as well as Chapel Street and the new Friars Bridge. It is is likely that the B classification of Friars Bridge is a mistake. By 1993, the A82 dual carriageway has been completed, and the B9146 and adjacent part of the B9161 had been declassified.