NE Scotland road improvements coming

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Roadtripper_Ian
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NE Scotland road improvements coming

Post by Roadtripper_Ian »

Hi everyone,

Since I relocated up here to sunny Aberdeenshire I have been enjoying exploring a beautiful and largely ignored part of Scotland. This is good news - tourists feel free to keep heading to the north west and leave the north east be...

What has struck me though is how a few key routes take the bulk of the long distance traffic, has benefited from various improvement schemes yet remains largely sub-standard. The A96 and A98 carry a lot of HGV traffic yet plough through pretty little towns with narrow streets. Many of these really need bypassing:

A96: Nairn, Elgin, Keith
A98: Cullen, Portsoy, Banff & Macduff

For the A96 there is a Transport Scotland plan to dual the whole route (https://www.transport.gov.scot/projects ... -aberdeen/). Once completed, with the exception of a succession of (too tight) roundabouts at the Aberdeen end and one at the Inverness end, it will be dualled (and a non-motorway special road...?) throughout. An impressive scheme albeit one that has already been talked about in detail for 13 years without work actually starting.

Would be good to also see something done to help people living in places like Macduff - would be seriously improved with a bypass
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Bryn666
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Re: NE Scotland road improvements coming

Post by Bryn666 »

Roadtripper_Ian wrote: Wed Jul 14, 2021 12:11 Hi everyone,

Since I relocated up here to sunny Aberdeenshire I have been enjoying exploring a beautiful and largely ignored part of Scotland. This is good news - tourists feel free to keep heading to the north west and leave the north east be...

What has struck me though is how a few key routes take the bulk of the long distance traffic, has benefited from various improvement schemes yet remains largely sub-standard. The A96 and A98 carry a lot of HGV traffic yet plough through pretty little towns with narrow streets. Many of these really need bypassing:

A96: Nairn, Elgin, Keith
A98: Cullen, Portsoy, Banff & Macduff

For the A96 there is a Transport Scotland plan to dual the whole route (https://www.transport.gov.scot/projects ... -aberdeen/). Once completed, with the exception of a succession of (too tight) roundabouts at the Aberdeen end and one at the Inverness end, it will be dualled (and a non-motorway special road...?) throughout. An impressive scheme albeit one that has already been talked about in detail for 13 years without work actually starting.

Would be good to also see something done to help people living in places like Macduff - would be seriously improved with a bypass
Given the relative traffic volumes I think more targeted dual carriageway bypasses of the settlements and going for general safety improvements on the existing roads between would be a far better spend, but the SNP are determined to have their golden V of A9/A96 expressways whilst the at-grade death traps on the A9 between Dunblane and Perth and A90 between Perth and Aberdeen go largely ignored.
Bryn
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orudge
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Re: NE Scotland road improvements coming

Post by orudge »

There are a few A96 topics on here (some for the specific dualling/bypass projects, and I think a general A96 topic).

Though I don't generally use it myself living in Banchory, improvements to the A90 north of Ellon (at least as far as the Toll of Birness junction) appear to be much wished for.

The A98 is a nice enough road to drive as a tourist (which tends to be why I'm up in that parts - we usually stop off at all the towns/villages you mentioned!). I guess for HGVs etc it would depend on where they were going, but I'd expect trips from Elgin/Inverness to, say, Banff or Fraserburgh would be encouraged to use the A96 and A95 (though there'd be no avoiding Banff/Macduff that way for trips to Fraserburgh). Of course the A98 is no longer primary or trunk, so it's up to Moray and Aberdeenshire Councils to fund any improvements - and frankly I can't see any major road improvements coming any time soon given council budget levels.
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