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jackal wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 11:50
North Kingswells isn't needed at all and creates a weaving risk.
Traffic out of that junction is relatively low, but it is very handy to have a “back way” onto/off the A90 that avoids the highly congested South Kingswells junction at rush hour. (I work in the business park by the junction.) Without it that junction would just be even more congested.
jackal wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 11:50
South Kingswells is probably the least bad but still there are deficiencies to the "massive roundabout with countless arms" approach - a dumbbell may have been better.
Part of the problem is that there are 3 local roads jammed into the junction. Without them, freeflow lanes from A944 westbound to A90 southbound, A90 southbound to A944 eastbound, and the equivalent on the other side, wouldn’t be too difficult and would I expect help traffic flow. Unfortunately, at 5pm in particular this junction jams up significantly. Signalisation and remarking to 3 lanes is proposed as part of the Aberdeen FC stadium works I believe.
jackal wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 11:50I know most traffic is likely to go to Aberdeen but you could still argue the mainline should have gone around the bypass to maintain route standard. GSJs are more the exception than the norm on the A90 in to Aberdeen (Blackdog is even the last GSJ heading south).
I don't agree. If the major traffic flow is to/from Aberdeen then it is only sensible that the mainline carriageway flows to/from Aberdeen. It might look messy on the map, but if the alternative is more turning traffic using the junction then that would just lead to more congestion and slower journey times.
It's hard to imagine them coming up with a more congestion-inducing design than Stonehaven.
It depends on volume projections, but if it's a close run thing I'd have sent the mainline around the bypass due to route consistency, standard consistency and safety concerns. Intuitively it seems it would be fairly close but I could be wrong. I agree if the Aberdeen radials are dominant it's right they get priority.
Whichever way the mainline went, Stonehaven and Blackdog should both have had the major right turns freeflowed with parclos, notwithstanding the UK aversion to such suspiciously foreign designs.
jackal wrote: ↑Sun Nov 17, 2019 15:37
It's hard to imagine them coming up with a more congestion-inducing design than Stonehaven.
It depends on volume projections, but if it's a close run thing I'd have sent the mainline around the bypass due to route consistency, standard consistency and safety concerns. Intuitively it seems it would be fairly close but I could be wrong. I agree if the Aberdeen radials are dominant it's right they get priority.
With regards to the Stonehaven end of the bypass, I'm surprised that didn't give the route onto the bypass the mainline and make the new A90/A956 route the main route into Aberdeen. With a generously proportioned directional-T GSJ, instead of the rather pathetic roundabout, at Cleanhill the distance would barely have been more than the old road and a large section of poorly aligned dual carriageway could have been downgraded.
jackal wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 11:50
North Kingswells isn't needed at all and creates a weaving risk.
A data point on this - the back road and, by consequence, the North Kingswells junction are closed this week due for roadworks, and the A944 has been hellish due to the displaced traffic. Significant tailbacks at both rush hours, moreso than usual. Took me about 7 cycles of the lights just to get out of the business park onto the dual carriageway, normally it takes 1 or maybe 2 at the most. The queues heading from Westhill back into town were very long indeed too. I think the junction is well enough used, at rush hour at least!
jackal wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 11:50
North Kingswells isn't needed at all and creates a weaving risk.
A data point on this - the back road and, by consequence, the North Kingswells junction are closed this week due for roadworks, and the A944 has been hellish due to the displaced traffic. Significant tailbacks at both rush hours, moreso than usual. Took me about 7 cycles of the lights just to get out of the business park onto the dual carriageway, normally it takes 1 or maybe 2 at the most. The queues heading from Westhill back into town were very long indeed too. I think the junction is well enough used, at rush hour at least!
Just to add to the fun this morning, there was an accident s/bound at the roundabout and the queues in both lanes of the actual bypass were around a mile long. Took the best part of 5 minutes to negotiate.
Why the South Kingswells roundabout junctions weren't signalised is a mystery to me. Traffic flows on the A944 just as busy as the A96 at Craibstone. Don't think that this would have been a huge help with the closure of the back road though.
The solution to that is to build South Kingswells to an appropriately higher capacity design (e.g., 6 ramp parclo). Or if they must have the separate junction for the rat run at least have it further south so there isn't a tight weaving space to the (equally underspecced) A96 junction.
The traffic lights are needed, even at 2pm yesterday it took me an age to exit the A90 southbound onto that roundabout, due to the closure at Kingswells.
I make the trip from Ellon to Westhill frequently and at certain times of the day I’m quicker coming off at Craibstone and cutting through Tyrebagger forest.
SuperLez wrote: ↑Tue Dec 03, 2019 19:44
Just to add to the fun this morning, there was an accident s/bound at the roundabout and the queues in both lanes of the actual bypass were around a mile long. Took the best part of 5 minutes to negotiate.
No disrespect intended, but as an expat southerner for whom traffic levels in north-east Scotland are still something of a novelty, nearly two decades after I moved here, this post did make me smile. Five whole minutes?
Back in the late '80s I worked in a small town in Sussex and the headlong rush to get off the industrial estate and on to the main road at kicking out time meant that, even then, it would take a good 20 minutes to drive about a quarter of a mile. Every day.
Come to think of it, have you experienced Broxden during the weekday peak?
SuperLez wrote: ↑Tue Dec 03, 2019 19:44
Just to add to the fun this morning, there was an accident s/bound at the roundabout and the queues in both lanes of the actual bypass were around a mile long. Took the best part of 5 minutes to negotiate.
No disrespect intended, but as an expat southerner for whom traffic levels in north-east Scotland are still something of a novelty, nearly two decades after I moved here, this post did make me smile. Five whole minutes?
The surprise on my part comes from the fact that the AWPR is for the most part free-running at this point - even at peak times.
Back in the late '80s I worked in a small town in Sussex and the headlong rush to get off the industrial estate and on to the main road at kicking out time meant that, even then, it would take a good 20 minutes to drive about a quarter of a mile. Every day.
Prior to the AWPR coming on stream, did you ever have the "privilege" of trying to get out of the Dyce industrial estates at "kicking out" time? If heading for the A947 from the Kirkhill and Howe Moss estates, it wasn't unusual for it to take the best part of an hour to clear Parkhill Junction (B977). Also, Altens and Bridge of Don both continue to give some grief, but these have improved a bit since the bypass opened. And orudge and Queeg have said that the A944 still has significant peak-time queues both ways (always mentioned on the local radio traffic reports).
Come to think of it, have you experienced Broxden during the weekday peak?
Know full well what Broxden is like - and not only at peak times!
Before the bypass, ever experienced the Haudagain, Bridge of Dee, Wellington Rd, King St etc during the rush hour?
Don't worry, I fully appreciate the difference the AWPR has made to traffic flows in and around Aberdeen!
AWPR came in handy for many today, heading into Aberdeen from Stonehaven mid-morning I passed the aftermath of a RTA at Muchalls, sadly involving a pedestrian fatality & a coach going south.
The A92 remained closed for investigations long after.
Stonehaven Junction is a grade separated junction at the southern end of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route. The junction was originally constructed as part of the Stonehaven bypass, providing an exit from and entrance to the northbound A90 carriageway only. Southbound access into Stonehaven was achieved via the use of the old road, to the east, while there was no southbound entrance at this point - it was unlikely that original traffic patterns would have required
Charleston Interchange is located at the southern end of the Aberdeen Bypass and the Western Peripheral Route. The A956 is the old road into the City. Formerly a trumpet on the A90 with access only to the citybound A956, the junction is now a signal-controlled diamond interchange with access to the A956 bypass route, the A92 towards the city, the A92 towards Stonehaven, and the citybound A956.
Cleanhill Roundabout is the controversial new junction between the A90 and A956 on the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route. It is controversial because while all of the other junctions on this new bypass route have been built with some form of grade-separation, this is a flat roundabout at the point where it is anticipated there will be the majority of
The Kingswells North Junction on the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route has the distinction of being the only junction on the new route solely connecting to an unclassified road. It connects the growing suburban village of Kingswells (and a major business park) to the new road, albeit only with north facing slips, traffic to and from the south expected to use the
Craibstone Junction is a junction at the entrance to Aberdeen Airport which consists of two distinct parts to connect the A90 and A96. The whole junction complex was constructed as part of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route project, which included the new road into the Airport, now numbered as the B984. For some reason, it was decided that the A90 and A96 would not be