Aberdeen Bypass Route Announced

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Bryn666
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Aberdeen Bypass Route Announced

Post by Bryn666 »

Just spotted on BBC News:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/nor ... 964536.stm


The bypass is aimed at cutting congestion in and around Aberdeen
The preferred route for the Aberdeen bypass has been unveiled, passing through the site of a school and several homes.
Scottish Transport Minister Tavish Scott said the route minimised the impact on the area it went through.

It would pass through the site of the city's International School and discussions are under way with the school board.

Mr Scott said 19 properties would have to be demolished for the 46km road.

Mr Scott said: "I am very aware of the understandable concerns caused by the width of the corridor being looked at and the time taken to narrow this down.

"However, it was important to examine all the options to help us identify a line that had as little impact as possible on people's homes, communities and the environment.

"We have now completed that process and can now confirm the preferred line for the new road.

Uncertainty 'ended'

"This line achieves, as far as possible, our aim of minimising the impact of the road on homes and properties, but I do realise that for some people this will mean that they are still affected."

Leader of Aberdeenshire Council, Audrey Findlay said: "The narrowing of the route corridor is welcome progress, particularly as it will bring a degree of certainty to those whose homes may be affected by the proposed route.

"Effective consultation with residents, business people and campaigners is essential as the project advances."

Councillor John Stewart, of Aberdeen City Council, said: "We are pleased that the minister has ended the uncertainty by announcing the preferred line.

"We are aware that the choice will not please everyone, but it will be a relief to the many people whose homes will not now be affected who are living in the previously announced wider corridor."

The bypass, which will cost hundreds of millions of pounds, has attracted significant opposition, including more than 1,600 names on an online petition.
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Queeg
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Post by Queeg »

Map here if anyone's interested (it's a PDF file)

Well, if that line is accurate, then there's quite a few good points and bad points.

I do see scope for an improved northern start junction as the road is now supposed to leave the existing A90 at Blackdog rifle ranges as opposed to the village.

Passing through the international school is a blow for them, but to be honest it was either them or one of the special needs schools that it would have gone through.

The real problem that I see (and I've said this before :wink: ) is the junction with the A956. The WPR should absolutely not meet up with this, unless the executive was willing to pay for a proper junction (which they won't). At the moment, a perfectly good trumpet junction cannot handle the volume of traffic so I don't see how replacing this with a roundabout will be of any use. Personally I'd run the WPR slightly further south to Marywell and join it onto the A90 there, but hey, what do I know... :roll: [/url]
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Post by VibeOne »

that is one massive amount of new build road.

wont happen.
SuperLez
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Post by SuperLez »

VibeOne wrote:that is one massive amount of new build road.

wont happen.
Thirty miles of new highway may well sound excessive, but as everyone who has to drive in Aberdeen these days well knows, the current network simply cannot cope with the traffic volumes as they stand now.

The Bridge of Dee and Haudagain roundabouts have constant streams of queuing traffic throughout the day. In between, Anderson Drive is absolutely bursting at the seams.

Tailbacks are also a fact of life on Market Street, Wellington Road and Auchmill Road, while The Parkway is our answer to the A8000.

This road should really have been built ages ago, but it is now somewhat reassuring that we have only 5 more years of the aforementioned to endure.

Can't understand the idea of resighting the Haudagain at Charlestown though...
C83
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Post by C83 »

VibeOne wrote:that is one massive amount of new build road.

wont happen.
I would have agreed, until the Scottish Exec became the Scottish Road Building Agency, I think they may have realised that people who vote like nice wide roads and there are a limited number of protestors, so if they build lots of roads they'll be more spread out and less noticeable.

Currently there are either planned or strongly suggested by the exec/transport scotland:

A8000 replacement
A68 Dalkeith Bypass
A8 Upgrade to M8
A80 Upgrade to M80
Aberdeen Bypass
Kincardine Bridge and western bypass
M74 extension

Plus they have just published a report suggesting dualing the A9 to pitlochry and upgrading the A82.
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Klaxon
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Post by Klaxon »

C83 wrote:A8000 replacement (not any good info about)
A68 Dalkeith Bypass
A8 Upgrade to M8
A80 Upgrade to M80
Aberdeen Bypass
Kincardine Bridge and western bypass
M74 extension

Plus they have just published a report suggesting dualing the A9 to pitlochry and upgrading the A82.
Linkified those
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Gav
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Special Purpose or not ??

Post by Gav »

Did I read right is this road to be a special purpose road or just a normal one ?

Gav
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Post by stu20_ml2 »

May also interest you to know that the details of the M74 Junction 5 (Raith Interchange) major improvement scheme are due in the coming weeks. Its looking like tunnel/underpass under the M74 and Whistleberry roundabout (like at Newbridge) with new ramps built for Hamilton/Bothwell traffic. Around £60 million I think.
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Re: Special Purpose or not ??

Post by SuperLez »

Gav wrote:Did I read right is this road to be a special purpose road or just a normal one ?

Gav
I believe that the main body of the bypass (the section between Charlestown and Blackdog) will be constructed as a special road. I assume that this will mean a 70mph speed limit as opposed to NSL, bicycles, pedestrians, horses, mopeds under 50cc etc banned from all parts of the route, the banning of stopping on any part of the carriageway and no U-turns.

Hopefully, they will also proscribe the use of other slow-moving vehicles such as tractors and plant such as bulldozers, although probably wishful thinking on my part!

Don't know if road will come with additional technical features such as hard shoulders, overhead gantry signage, SOS phones or emergency lighting.

Given the protests from groups such as Save Camphill and Road Sense, just imagine all the howling if they dared to suggest building the route as a full-blown motorway as they may well have done 20 years ago.

The real puzzle for me though is the "Fastlink" running between Milltimber and Stonehaven.

This term of course has no legal meaning, and as things stand at the moment, this will in the main be S2, with overtaking lanes.

Given that at present the only exit/entry points planned are sighted on the Stonehaven bypass and the new route itself, can they impose special road regulations on this stretch, or would all and sundry be permitted to use what would effectively be a dead-end from Stonehaven?
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Post by flyingscot »

Hmm, I can see that one decending into a farce rapidily....

5 years hmm, optomistic IMHO, make it more like 10.... We'll have a PI too won't we? And we'll have lawyers looking into the status of what defines a school closure to see if the school can be demolished and relocated no doubt!

I don't know Aberdeen well, so can't comment on the traffic or routes, but surely there must be a way around demolishing schools and houses? However I bet (and looking at the map I can see some), that Aberdeen has seen development of Supermarkets and housing areas near these busy roads which makes you wonder how they got through the TIAs? Therefore there has to be some blame attached to those who approved those developments in particular supermarkets which add a large number of people!

There usually is a better solution to all problems, however whether cgovernments want to see it or invoke it remains to be seen.

Scotland at present is really intrested in replacing existing roads. A77-M77, B764-GSO, A8000-M9 spur, A8-M8 and so on. Those ones (in particular the first two) were fairly trouble free. The trouble has risen on brand new routes with controversial routings (M74 and APR).
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Post by VibeOne »

C83 wrote:
VibeOne wrote:that is one massive amount of new build road.

wont happen.
I would have agreed, until the Scottish Exec became the Scottish Road Building Agency, I think they may have realised that people who vote like nice wide roads and there are a limited number of protestors, so if they build lots of roads they'll be more spread out and less noticeable.

Currently there are either planned or strongly suggested by the exec/transport scotland:

A8000 replacement
A68 Dalkeith Bypass
A8 Upgrade to M8
A80 Upgrade to M80
Aberdeen Bypass
Kincardine Bridge and western bypass
M74 extension

Plus they have just published a report suggesting dualing the A9 to pitlochry and upgrading the A82.
I'm aware of this - and back their standing on roads, but I think this is just too much.

While I don't dispute the problems - I just can't see this happening.

We'll see.
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Re: Special Purpose or not ??

Post by Queeg »

SuperLez wrote:
Gav wrote:Did I read right is this road to be a special purpose road or just a normal one ?

Gav
I believe that the main body of the bypass (the section between Charlestown and Blackdog) will be constructed as a special road. I assume that this will mean a 70mph speed limit as opposed to NSL, bicycles, pedestrians, horses, mopeds under 50cc etc banned from all parts of the route, the banning of stopping on any part of the carriageway and no U-turns.

Hopefully, they will also proscribe the use of other slow-moving vehicles such as tractors and plant such as bulldozers, although probably wishful thinking on my part!

Don't know if road will come with additional technical features such as hard shoulders, overhead gantry signage, SOS phones or emergency lighting.

Given the protests from groups such as Save Camphill and Road Sense, just imagine all the howling if they dared to suggest building the route as a full-blown motorway as they may well have done 20 years ago.

The real puzzle for me though is the "Fastlink" running between Milltimber and Stonehaven.

This term of course has no legal meaning, and as things stand at the moment, this will in the main be S2, with overtaking lanes.

Given that at present the only exit/entry points planned are sighted on the Stonehaven bypass and the new route itself, can they impose special road regulations on this stretch, or would all and sundry be permitted to use what would effectively be a dead-end from Stonehaven?
Special Roads status will be published by the end of the year according to the transport scotland site. I've read in the past that slow moving vehicles will be prohibited from the road. I believe the same restrictions will apply to the "Fastlink", because as you say, there's no exits planned on it.

Technical features...there's more than likely going to be laybys with SOS phones, they've installed some on the A90 south of Aberdeen in recent years so I can't see why they wouldn't go ahead. Hard shoulders probably won't be built, but I reckon there'll be "soft" shoulders similar to what they have on the newer sections of the A96, and A90 north of Ellon. As for gantry signage, there's absolutely no need for it IMO.
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Post by Truvelo »

I'm a bit confused about the Fastlink and all that so can someone enlighten me. Is the Fastlink the bit that runs due North from Stonehaven, and this will be single carriageway, right? Wouldn't it better to do away with this bit and the other part that goes to the A956 trumpet and have the bypass joining the A90 near Portlethen like this, or am I being to simplistic:
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paully
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Post by paully »

Truvelo wrote:I'm a bit confused about the Fastlink and all that so can someone enlighten me. Is the Fastlink the bit that runs due North from Stonehaven, and this will be single carriageway, right? Wouldn't it better to do away with this bit and the other part that goes to the A956 trumpet and have the bypass joining the A90 near Portlethen like this, or am I being to simplistic:
Image
I can see what you are thinking and I'm sure you know the road well but the problem I would see is that the A90 between Stonehaven and Aberdeen has most of its junctions at-grade and there is the crazy chicane at Bridge Of Muchalls. I reckon they want to take as much traffic off the current A90 as possible.

Incidentally I have not seen anything official saying that the "fastlink" is just S2 or S2+1, in fact some of the comments on the BBC site were criticising the fact there will be 2 parallel dual carriageways between Stonehaven and Aberdeen, as far as I understand it is planned as D2. Otherwise it would be called "fast-until-you-get-stuck-behind-a-lorry-link" and would end up like the A9.

They should also just cut the nonsense and if it is to be a special road give it blue signs regardless of any protest likely to arise.
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Post by RickyB_uk »

I think it says on the environmental assesments that it would be a dual 2-lane special road with grade separated junctions :clap:
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Gav
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Post by Gav »

If indeed it was to be built as a motorway what would it be called ?

M90

A90(M)

Also would they ever get round to building the road all the way down to the M90 and complete it ?

The line of the route looks about right - I know what is meant by the other line but the majority of traffic will be Aberdeen bound if the fast link was built as the other line then traffic would need to zig zag to get to Aberdeen south.

Also the other proposed line would dump traffic back onto the old A90 south and that would defeat the purpose of the bypass....

How about a general up grade of the A90 south of Aberdeen and then swing the road round the city ? Only trouble there is that an on line upgrade would be chaos.

Gav
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Post by McDanger »

It was mentioned by either Tavish Scott or Nicol Stephen in Wednesday's P&J that it has "yet to be decided" whether or not the Fastlink would be WS2 or D2.
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Post by bucephalus »

can't they just upgrade the urban A90, A93, and A944 to GSJ'd D3H instead or is that too tricky?
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Gav
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A90 Aberdeen Bypass

Post by Gav »

I know a firm that is putting up a quote for tender just now for the manufacture of several signs for the Aberdeen City bypass.

The snipet is that these signs are to be manufactured in motorway font with blue background.....

Seems that the city council wish to keep the A90 going into Aberdeen and have the bypass constructed as a motoway route.

http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/M90bypassaberdeen
C83
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Re: A90 Aberdeen Bypass

Post by C83 »

Gav wrote:I know a firm that is putting up a quote for tender just now for the manufacture of several signs for the Aberdeen City bypass.

The snipet is that these signs are to be manufactured in motorway font with blue background.....

Seems that the city council wish to keep the A90 going into Aberdeen and have the bypass constructed as a motoway route.

http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/M90bypassaberdeen
Is that link a joke, or a typo? It's not working, if the motorway rumour is true then the hippies are gonna be out in force.
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