Bertiebus wrote:Having driven between Morpeth & Edinburgh many times, IMHO dualling as far as Berwick is highly desirable, but north of Berwick the existing chunks of D2 are pretty much adequate. Grinding up the stretch past Bellshill, Lindisfarne and Haggerston in a queue of traffic behind a succession of HGVs and coaches seems to take forever, made all the more frustrating by the many comparatively straight stretches which are negated either by oncoming traffic or Ted & Alice a few cars in front steadfastly refusing to go above their stately 50mph in order to overtake said HGV.
Between Berwick and Dunbar the traffic seems noticeably lighter. I don't remember the same feelings of frustration going past Burnmouth, Reston or Grantshouse, with the regular sections of D2 relieving the monotony.
I'd agree. The Ellingham - Morpeth upgrade to D2 is very welcome and certainly long overdue between Felton and Morpeth but it doesn't really address the 23 mile long section with limited overtaking opportunities between Ellingham and Berwick. The dropped Mousen bends and Haggerston schemes would have been more useful in this regard but there doesn't seem to be any appetite for reviving them. Perhaps some sections of WS2+1 would do the trick instead to give guaranteed overtaking opportunities in North Northumberland.
On the Scottish side by contrast there is good spacing of the D2 sections with the longest S2 section only being around 7 miles.
From the end of the Edinburgh D2 to the Border the spacing is as follows:
- 8.1km S2 from Innerwick to A1107 Coldingham turn (although some overtaking lanes / S3 near Cockburnspath)
- 2.5km D2
- 5.6km S2 from Penmanshiel to Houndwood
- 3.7km D2
- 11.7km S2 from Houndwood to Lamberton
- 1.3km D2 (distance to Border only)
So I'd agree there is probably no need or business case for a full D2 upgrade in Scotland until there is more D2 on the English side that could start to drive traffic from south of the A66 to use the East Coast route to access Edinburgh.
A good initial scheme on the Scottish side might be 7.5km or so of new D2 from the Houndwood D2 section to the Burnhouse railway overbridge. Grade separation for the Reston, Ayton and Eyemouth junctions would also be good to see as part of that scheme. It would be relatively cheap to deliver, with 3 GSJs and a new crossing of the Eye Water being the main structures required.
Each of the other S2 sections in Scotland has more complex structural or environmental issues to overcome and would be more expensive / difficult / unpopular to resolve. The previous D2 upgrades have mainly taken the low hanging fruit and left the more difficult to resolve sections as S2. The main issues to resolve are:
- Rail bridge at Skateraw
- Proximity to rail line and cliffs at Bilsdean
- Proximity to properties at Dunglass Water
- Rail bridge at Cockburnspath
- Rail bridge at Penmanshiel
- Proximity to rail line and properties at Grantshouse
- Rail bridge at Burnmouth
- Proximity to properties on both sides of road at Burnmouth
- Narrow cliffs at Lamberton Shiels
All of these could be overcome with time, money and political capital but until more D2 is in place in England I don't see Scottish Governments of any political persuasion devoting much priority to any scheme beyond a D2 Houndwood - Ayton east scheme as outlined above.