There is going to be a lot of construction areas along the route, I think at least two or three stretches will have to be simultaneous as each will be around four/five miles long. The latest one near Aviemore took two years and there is only seven years left until 2025!Nwallace wrote: ↑Wed Jul 04, 2018 22:33This is what we've been told to expect though.B9127 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 04, 2018 20:00 Reply emailed today - they are still evaluating tenders - 4 in the shortlist - Farrans and Roadbridge JV , Wills Bros, Balfour Beatty and Dragados SA . Contract will be awarded late summer with a start shortly there after - that's the gist of the reply - so 2025 completion is optimistic in the extreme or the A9 will be one long road construction site
A9 dualling
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- Norfolktolancashire
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Re: A9 dualling
Re: A9 dualling
Re: A9 dualling
The A74 was a already dual carriageway so they had more space to play with.
On the A74 there were up to six contracts under construction simultaneously. There were many different combinations of where the new carriageways were located in relation to the old ones, but over most of the length the new didn't overlap the old, so on those stretches it could be done with little disruption.
Coatsgate to Harthope was a 5- or 6-mile stretch of mostly symmetric on-line widening, but they seemed to manage it with much less fuss than the recent A1 contract.
I'm not clear what you're saying was unnecessary?
Re: A9 dualling
I feel like much of the A74 was converted to D3M on principle. Much of the route is still very rural, and when you consider routes like the A1 still haven’t been dualled to the border, making one route both entirely motorway and D3M seems like overkill.
Of course, narrow lanes did exist in some places, such as Lesmahagow.
Re: A9 dualling
There have been a number of occasions where the D3 over Beattock has been very much approrpiate though; the minute you have a goods vehicle in L1, and either a slow car or a slightly faster moving Goods vehicle in L2 and you're sitting at :Cough: that 3rd lane is just perfect.
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Re: A9 dualling
The A74 dual carriageway may have been built to a relatively high standard for its time in the early and mid 1960's (ditto the A1, especially in Yorkshire) but by the mid-1980's, it was very clear that the A74 was becoming no longer fit for purpose as the main route between England and Scotland. The A74 was potentially quite dangerous as it had bus stops, farm and house accesses, and numerous at grade right turns, including a nasty crossroads with the B797 at Abington and a staggered crossroads with the A70 at Happendon.Berk wrote: ↑Sat Jul 07, 2018 15:05I feel like much of the A74 was converted to D3M on principle. Much of the route is still very rural, and when you consider routes like the A1 still haven’t been dualled to the border, making one route both entirely motorway and D3M seems like overkill.
Of course, narrow lanes did exist in some places, such as Lesmahagow.
- Ruperts Trooper
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Re: A9 dualling
From memory, the D2 A74 was a busy road in the early '70s, with lanes noticeably narrower than the M6 further south and even narrower round Lesmahgow - the M74/A74(M) doesn't have the "soul" of the A74 but it's a welcome improvement.Robert Kilcoyne wrote: ↑Sat Jul 07, 2018 18:42The A74 dual carriageway may have been built to a relatively high standard for its time in the early and mid 1960's (ditto the A1, especially in Yorkshire) but by the mid-1980's, it was very clear that the A74 was becoming no longer fit for purpose as the main route between England and Scotland. The A74 was potentially quite dangerous as it had bus stops, farm and house accesses, and numerous at grade right turns, including a nasty crossroads with the B797 at Abington and a staggered crossroads with the A70 at Happendon.Berk wrote: ↑Sat Jul 07, 2018 15:05I feel like much of the A74 was converted to D3M on principle. Much of the route is still very rural, and when you consider routes like the A1 still haven’t been dualled to the border, making one route both entirely motorway and D3M seems like overkill.
Of course, narrow lanes did exist in some places, such as Lesmahagow.
I never felt the A9 had any "soul" but maybe I'm being to romantic.
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Re: A9 dualling
The Lesmahagow bypass on the A74 was built in the 1930's:-Ruperts Trooper wrote: ↑Sat Jul 07, 2018 18:54 From memory, the D2 A74 was a busy road in the early '70s, with lanes noticeably narrower than the M6 further south and even narrower round Lesmahgow - the M74/A74(M) doesn't have the "soul" of the A74 but it's a welcome improvement.
I never felt the A9 had any "soul" but maybe I'm being to romantic.
https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=A74
From the SABRE Wiki: A74 :
The A74, despite only a fragment of it remaining under this classification in Glasgow today, is a road that is much remembered by those who used to make the great journey north (or south) along it before it was upgraded to the A74(M) during the course of the 1990s. Today, only a few yards of the original 1923 route still carry the A74 number.
The A74 begins immediately south of the George Bridge in Glasgow, at a junction with the A8. It passes
- Ruperts Trooper
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Re: A9 dualling
"much remembered by those who used to make the great journey north (or south) along it before it was upgraded to the A74(M)" - I'm certainly one of those - every fortnight, I drove from Peterhead to Wolverhampton on Friday evening and back the other way on Sunday afternoon - the '70s were good for me.Robert Kilcoyne wrote: ↑Sat Jul 07, 2018 19:05The Lesmahagow bypass on the A74 was built in the 1930's:-Ruperts Trooper wrote: ↑Sat Jul 07, 2018 18:54 From memory, the D2 A74 was a busy road in the early '70s, with lanes noticeably narrower than the M6 further south and even narrower round Lesmahgow - the M74/A74(M) doesn't have the "soul" of the A74 but it's a welcome improvement.
I never felt the A9 had any "soul" but maybe I'm being to romantic.
https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=A74
From the SABRE Wiki: A74 :
The A74, despite only a fragment of it remaining under this classification in Glasgow today, is a road that is much remembered by those who used to make the great journey north (or south) along it before it was upgraded to the A74(M) during the course of the 1990s. Today, only a few yards of the original 1923 route still carry the A74 number.
The A74 begins immediately south of the George Bridge in Glasgow, at a junction with the A8. It passes
- novaecosse
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Re: A9 dualling
As I understand it, the DBFO had the option of building the motorway as a D2 with the requirement to widen to D3 at a certain criteria.Nwallace wrote: ↑Sat Jul 07, 2018 17:20 It often feels like D3M is overkill particularly over Beattock; but when you pile into the D2 section from Abington you're soon wishing it had been upgraded too.
There have been a number of occasions where the D3 over Beattock has been very much approrpiate though; the minute you have a goods vehicle in L1, and either a slow car or a slightly faster moving Goods vehicle in L2 and you're sitting at :Cough: that 3rd lane is just perfect.
They took the option to go straight to D3.
Interestingly, the road pavement construction thickness in Lane 3, is thinner than the other lanes because it doesn’t take heavies and was an agreed departure from Standards.
Re: A9 dualling
That's interesting, because my memory said that the surface on L3 tends to be different, and a random drop of the google maps man (ok this was the 2nd drop as the first landed me in Auchen castle...) shows lane 3 looking surface wise a lot like the hard shouldernovaecosse wrote: ↑Mon Jul 09, 2018 18:44As I understand it, the DBFO had the option of building the motorway as a D2 with the requirement to widen to D3 at a certain criteria.Nwallace wrote: ↑Sat Jul 07, 2018 17:20 It often feels like D3M is overkill particularly over Beattock; but when you pile into the D2 section from Abington you're soon wishing it had been upgraded too.
There have been a number of occasions where the D3 over Beattock has been very much approrpiate though; the minute you have a goods vehicle in L1, and either a slow car or a slightly faster moving Goods vehicle in L2 and you're sitting at :Cough: that 3rd lane is just perfect.
They took the option to go straight to D3.
Interestingly, the road pavement construction thickness in Lane 3, is thinner than the other lanes because it doesn’t take heavies and was an agreed departure from Standards.
https://www.google.com/maps/@55.2960301 ... 312!8i6656
Re: A9 dualling
Big and complex.
Re: A9 dualling
Terminally cynical, unimpressed, and nearly Middle Age already.
She said life was like a motorway; dull, grey, and long.
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Re: A9 dualling
Then as I've witnessed in roadworks all traffic runs in lane 3. It won't be an issue short term, if it was imagine what would happen to roads like the A838....
Now beyond off topic... oops!
Re: A9 dualling
That's very interesting. I don't think I knew that before. I'll add it to the wiki page some time.novaecosse wrote: ↑Mon Jul 09, 2018 18:44 As I understand it, the DBFO had the option of building the motorway as a D2 with the requirement to widen to D3 at a certain criteria.
They took the option to go straight to D3.
Of course by this time it was already D3M from J12 to Paddy's Rickle (the B7076 bridge south of the southernmost part of J14) and from J16 to the border.
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Re: A9 dualling
https://www.transport.gov.scot/news/a9- ... anagement/
Re: A9 dualling
It's still made of wood though. The only difference is they have to find some obscure disease in the trees before they raze the lot to the ground and burn it, and they've been doing that with inconvenient trees since long before biomass was fashionable.Nwallace wrote: ↑Tue Jun 26, 2018 22:44No, it's remnants of the natural Caledonian Pine forest around Birnham hill (and in various sections up the A9) and is not farmed like the neighbouring hills such as Craigvinnean with the intensive forestry operations are.
It's quite important in that damage to that is kept to a minimum as it's basically the only natural foresty left.
Re: A9 dualling
True, along with the ecological damage that goes with it, to the point at least 2 species that live in such woods are critically endangered.
There's also then the Shakespear link, only a few years ago there was a fair fuss about the Birnam Oak. What was it the witches open with?
Re: A9 dualling
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