Dualling (Scotland)

[DaStreetsweep]

Curious as to what roads users believe could do with widening perhaps to dualling standards.

Doesn't necessarily have to be the full length but I'd go (at least in part), the A77, A75, A82 and of course what's already earmarked for the A9 and A96.

But what about perhaps slightly lesser known areas that urgently require some dualling, or indeed for some further support for areas listed above.

The decision is yours! (no going to Graham for a quick reminder!).

[Halmyre]

A985 Inverkeithing to Kincardine, although the Kincardine Bridge will always be a single carriageway bottleneck.

A811 Stirling to Balloch.

A92 Glenrothes to Newport.

[Uncle Buck]

Hello,

I agree with the suggestions already made re A75, A77, A9, A92, A96, A985. I’d probably just stick to widening/ straightening/ adding overtaking lanes to the A811. Would dual A82 as far as Tarbert where the A83 leaves.

I would also dual A71 (to link Ayrshire and Edinburgh to one another and to M74) and A701 south of A74M Then I’d widen/ straighten/ add overtaking lanes to A84 Callander to Lochearnhead, A91 east of M90, A72.

[Duncan macknight]

When the A82 was upgraded at Loch Lomond, the stretch from Alexandria to Arden was made with the provision for later dual carriageway upgrade. Likewise at the final few mile approach to Tarbert.
The rest of the A82 as a Single carriageway does fine. the only thing I would fix is have a Consistent Width all the way up, the narrower sections tend to have large and lethal ditches at the side if the road, cheaply filled in with gravel most of the time. I think a 7.3m carriageway with 1m hard strips would Make the road flow much better.

Talking of the A9, my personal opinion is for Perth to Pitlochry be upgraded to dual carriageway and smaller improvement schemes north of there. The road functions fairly well, with an average speed of 50mph from Perth to Inverness.
The A96 is one I would improve to a modern width as the current carriageway does alter quite a bit, with 7.3m and hard strips be adequate.
The one bit of Info that made me rethink my opinions of the A9 Dualling programme, is we will be spending nearly £3Billion , building 80 miles of new road, grade separating the junctions etc. All this will total a saving of 20 minutes of the driving time, Worth it? When we have other roads in Scotland, nowhere near the same alignment standards, width, design speed, screaming out for some investment.

[Uncle Buck]

When the A82 was upgraded at Loch Lomond, the stretch from Alexandria to Arden was made with the provision for later dual carriageway upgrade. Likewise at the final few mile approach to Tarbert.
The rest of the A82 as a Single carriageway does fine. the only thing I would fix is have a Consistent Width all the way up, the narrower sections tend to have large and lethal ditches at the side if the road, cheaply filled in with gravel most of the time. I think a 7.3m carriageway with 1m hard strips would Make the road flow much better.

Talking of the A9, my personal opinion is for Perth to Pitlochry be upgraded to dual carriageway and smaller improvement schemes north of there. The road functions fairly well, with an average speed of 50mph from Perth to Inverness.
The A96 is one I would improve to a modern width as the current carriageway does alter quite a bit, with 7.3m and hard strips be adequate.
The one bit of Info that made me rethink my opinions of the A9 Dualling programme, is we will be spending nearly £3Billion , building 80 miles of new road, grade separating the junctions etc. All this will total a saving of 20 minutes of the driving time, Worth it? When we have other roads in Scotland, nowhere near the same alignment standards, width, design speed, screaming out for some investment.

I would say that in my experience the A82 between Balloch and Tarbert is terrible for overtaking. One tourist looking at the scenery and the whole road drops to 40mph. There is an overtaking lane at one bend which IMO is extremely dangerous as visibility is poor and the lane is notably short. This is why I would recommend dualling beyond Arden. However the section between the Balloch roundabout and Arden should Be the priority as trunk traffic is meeting Helensburgh traffic leading to queues at rush hour. (Off topic but I’d also put a roundabout at the northern Luss junction- no word of a lie, I’ve once sat for fifteen minutes trying to turn right there)

[B9127]

A92 Glenrothes to Newport , A9 , A96 A75, A1 to the border , By pass Arbroath properly, Dundee Northern By pass ,A77 as needed.

[scott125]

A985 Inverkeithing to Kincardine, although the Kincardine Bridge will always be a single carriageway bottleneck.

A811 Stirling to Balloch.

A92 Glenrothes to Newport.

Agree about A985 but is the A811 busy?

[Halmyre]

A985 Inverkeithing to Kincardine, although the Kincardine Bridge will always be a single carriageway bottleneck.

A811 Stirling to Balloch.

A92 Glenrothes to Newport.

Agree about A985 but is the A811 busy?

Not really, but it's one way to get to Dumbarton where my parents live!

[Uncle Buck]

A985 Inverkeithing to Kincardine, although the Kincardine Bridge will always be a single carriageway bottleneck.

A811 Stirling to Balloch.

A92 Glenrothes to Newport.

Agree about A985 but is the A811 busy?

Not really, but it's one way to get to Dumbarton where my parents live!

It’s really only Balloch to Drymen that’s substandard imo, far too many corners and poor visibility. The rest of the route does it’s job perfectly well, the only useful changes I can think of would be a roundabout at the A81 junction and a junction where it crosses the M9. Personally I don’t think any dualling is required at any point of the route.

[Halmyre]

Agree about A985 but is the A811 busy?

Not really, but it's one way to get to Dumbarton where my parents live!

It’s really only Balloch to Drymen that’s substandard imo, far too many corners and poor visibility. The rest of the route does it’s job perfectly well, the only useful changes I can think of would be a roundabout at the A81 junction and a junction where it crosses the M9. Personally I don’t think any dualling is required at any point of the route.

Well, it wasn't really a serious suggestion. Although the whole section from Arnprior to Balloch can be a mare if you get stuck behind a trundler.

[Uncle Buck]

Not really, but it's one way to get to Dumbarton where my parents live!

It’s really only Balloch to Drymen that’s substandard imo, far too many corners and poor visibility. The rest of the route does it’s job perfectly well, the only useful changes I can think of would be a roundabout at the A81 junction and a junction where it crosses the M9. Personally I don’t think any dualling is required at any point of the route.

Well, it wasn't really a serious suggestion. Although the whole section from Arnprior to Balloch can be a mare if you get stuck behind a trundler.

Haha well it’s a nice road anyway!

[Nwallace]

A92 Glenrothes to Newport.

Nah seriously its got next to no traffic on it outwith commuting time between parbroath and forgan, and Melville lodges to parbrosthbisbrsrely busy either.
Theres not a huge amount of need to travel between Glenrotten and Dundee.

Dundee to St Andrews and St Andrews to Cupar are much busier.

What the A92 could do with is the long straight between luthrie and rathillet made S2+1, and visibility improvements made between Sandford and kilmany, however that section does have big parking areas that the tractors can pull intom

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[Glenn A]

The A75 from the end of the Gretna by pass to Annan should have been made D2, this would have allowed faster access to and from the A74(M)/M6. However, the by pass scheme was completed before the A74 was upgraded to D3M.

[djw1981]

There's a fairly strong argument for dualling Gretna to E end of Dumfries bypass. The actual bypass might be fairly tricky to dual (structures etc), but given the plans for a Southern bypass http://swestrans.org.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=6819&p=0 you would end up with an effective dualling of the bypass.

[Owain]

There's a fairly strong argument for dualling Gretna to E end of Dumfries bypass. The actual bypass might be fairly tricky to dual (structures etc), but given the plans for a Southern bypass http://swestrans.org.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=6819&p=0 you would end up with an effective dualling of the bypass.

I know the A75 very well, and it is one of my favourite F99 roads (best driven in the middle of the night!).

There are two lengthy sections of dual carriageway either side of Dumfries, the one to the west being of high quality, while the one of the east is antiquated but nonetheless still suitable for 'making progress'. I've always found it a little bit odd that the existing bypass of Dumfries was built as S2W, considering the existence of those dualled sections to either side of the town.

Of greater urgency, however, would be bypasses for Crocketford and Springholm. And, possibly also of more immediate usefulness than any improvements at the eastern end, would be a long dualled section from the A751 junction (ideally replaced by a roundabout), that would allow the convoys of disembarked ferry traffic to sort itself out a lot sooner than is possible on the current road.