Inverness west link

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Duncan macknight
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Inverness west link

Post by Duncan macknight »

Evening all
Went for a wee walk last sunday along the Caledonian Canal to have a look at the Inverness west link progress and I must say it's coming along nicely with the tomnahurich roundabout completed and signs installed on approaches. Also I'm wondering what it will be classed as it seems A82 is going to be left to pass to longman.
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Re: Inverness west link

Post by A9NWIL »

Duncan macknight wrote:Evening all
Went for a wee walk last sunday along the Caledonian Canal to have a look at the Inverness west link progress and I must say it's coming along nicely with the tomnahurich roundabout completed and signs installed on approaches. Also I'm wondering what it will be classed as it seems A82 is going to be left to pass to longman.
If they were to build a A9 bypass of Inverness it would mean there was a traffic light free route from Lands End to John O'Groats, as you can already do it the other way without traffic lights!

Im not sure thats what you are referring too, but your post about a bypass got me thinking about that idea again.
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Re: RE: Inverness west link

Post by Glen »

Duncan macknight wrote:Also I'm wondering what it will be classed as it seems A82 is going to be left to pass to longman.
The Southern Distributor Road is to become the A8082 once the West Link is open.
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Re: RE: Inverness west link

Post by Duncan macknight »

Glen wrote:
Duncan macknight wrote:Also I'm wondering what it will be classed as it seems A82 is going to be left to pass to longman.
The Southern Distributor Road is to become the A8082 once the West Link is open.
Ah ok, (what a creative name!) because it's a big number, I'm thinking people who don't know the area will just follow A82 instead
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Re: Inverness west link

Post by Glen »

Traffic following the A82, or heading for the A9 and A96, will still use the A82 (although the route for HGVs is signed via Kinmylies and Muirtown).

The Southern Distributor Road is to access areas or roads along its route and will be signed as such. It's a pretty circuitous route to use end to end.

The only bit of the West Link project which is intended to serve the A82 route is the second swing bridge, which will be built in the second stage of works (2019-20).
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Re: Inverness west link

Post by J--M--B »

Glen wrote:Traffic following the A82, or heading for the A9 and A96, will still use the A82 (although the route for HGVs is signed via Kinmylies and Muirtown).

The Southern Distributor Road is to access areas or roads along its route and will be signed as such. It's a pretty circuitous route to use end to end.

The only bit of the West Link project which is intended to serve the A82 route is the second swing bridge, which will be built in the second stage of works (2019-20).
So it is an expensive project to purely benefit local commuters, no wonder people in the rest of the Highlands complain of the council being too Inverness-centric!
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Re: Inverness west link

Post by Glen »

I don't know what other function you were expecting a local distributor road to perform.
The project has a benefit to cost ratio of 4:1 and isn't nearly as expensive as some of the more outlandish options being suggested. In any case, part of the funding is through the city region deal, so has to be spent on investment in Inverness.
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Re: Inverness west link

Post by Bryn666 »

It's also because south Inverness is a complete dog to get to?

Not much demand for bypasses in Wester Ross is there?
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Re: Inverness west link

Post by rileyrob »

Bryn666 wrote:Not much demand for bypasses in Wester Ross is there?
Strome Ferry? and further south the Caol Link Road
J--M--B wrote:So it is an expensive project to purely benefit local commuters, no wonder people in the rest of the Highlands complain of the council being too Inverness-centric!
The signage at the new Tomnahurich Roundabout directs traffic onto the new road for Raigmore, and I would imagine that a lot of traffic from south of the city will use, and therefore benefit from the road as a way of getting to Raigmore, Inshes and Asda. It might even be an easier route to get to the A96 than staying on the A82, and almost certainly will be when (if) the link to the retail park gets built.
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From the SABRE Wiki: Caol Link Road :


The Caol Link Road is part of a greater scheme to speed traffic through Fort William. It is envisaged that it will start at the An Aird junction on the A82 in Fort William, and head north / north west to cross the River Lochy and reach the B8006 in Caol. From there, an additional section would be built across the Blar Mhor to meet the A830.


The argument in favour of this scheme is that the majority of traffic at the Lochybridge Junction where the A82 and A830

... Read More
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Re: Inverness west link

Post by Bryn666 »

There's always one, Rob :wink:
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Re: Inverness west link

Post by FtoE »

J--M--B wrote:
Glen wrote:Traffic following the A82, or heading for the A9 and A96, will still use the A82 (although the route for HGVs is signed via Kinmylies and Muirtown).

The Southern Distributor Road is to access areas or roads along its route and will be signed as such. It's a pretty circuitous route to use end to end.

The only bit of the West Link project which is intended to serve the A82 route is the second swing bridge, which will be built in the second stage of works (2019-20).
So it is an expensive project to purely benefit local commuters, no wonder people in the rest of the Highlands complain of the council being too Inverness-centric!
They should complain a bit louder and a bit more publicly!
But yes, it will assist the bungalow sprawl of Inverness to the south and east (and I believe is being engineered to allow easier dualling in the future). I have no doubt we'll see more supermarkets and big-box stores on it too - as the town centre continues to die on its erchie.
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Re: Inverness west link

Post by clc »

FtoE wrote: I have no doubt we'll see more supermarkets and big-box stores on it too - as the town centre continues to die on its erchie.
There's only 2 Tesco's and an Asda on it currently.
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Re: Inverness west link

Post by J--M--B »

FtoE wrote: They should complain a bit louder and a bit more publicly!
But yes, it will assist the bungalow sprawl of Inverness to the south and east (and I believe is being engineered to allow easier dualling in the future). I have no doubt we'll see more supermarkets and big-box stores on it too - as the town centre continues to die on its erchie.
There have been calls to reinstate something like the District Council structure - there are the Community Councils which are a bit like a Parish Council with no powers. The Fort William Community Council all resigned together because they could not see the point of wasting their time when the council paid no attention to them.
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Re: Inverness west link

Post by OLD GIT »

[quote="rileyrob"]Strome Ferry? and further south the Caol Link Road

The Caol link road has been crying out to be built for lots of years, perhaps a good time to have thought about it was when the area where the old tip was located was cleared.
It was that bad in the 70's that my late dad used to find it quicker to walk via Inverlochy from near the VW garage to the HPO .

From the SABRE Wiki: Caol Link Road :


The Caol Link Road is part of a greater scheme to speed traffic through Fort William. It is envisaged that it will start at the An Aird junction on the A82 in Fort William, and head north / north west to cross the River Lochy and reach the B8006 in Caol. From there, an additional section would be built across the Blar Mhor to meet the A830.


The argument in favour of this scheme is that the majority of traffic at the Lochybridge Junction where the A82 and A830

... Read More
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Re: Inverness west link

Post by rileyrob »

I was in Inverness Yesterday and took a look at both ends (from the car). The B862 end appears to be surfaced but I couldn't tell if the top layer was down. As far as I could see along the route, the road looked more or less finished, just needing lining and signing.

At the A82 end, the signs for the new Tomnahurich Roundabout confirm that the new road will be the primary A8082. However, from a little digging and watching the fly-throughs etc (http://www.highland.gov.uk/info/1523/tr ... _west_link) It looks as though the primary designation will only apply to the A82 diversion route, which means that there will be a short stub of primary A8082 for the next 3 years until the new canal bridge link is completed.

A drive down into Bught Park yielded a lot of high earth banks, but not a lot to see of the road itself. I wasn't quite clear whether these were screens to shelter the parks from the traffic, or if the road is at a higher level due to the canal bridge. The shape of the earthworks for the new Queens Roundabout (Inverness) was obvious, but no more. There was no suggestion of a connection into Bught Park, which seems a bit odd as the current route via Bught Drive is a bit convoluted.

I think I could also see the new bridge beams in place across the River Ness, but it was dusk and too late to go for a walk to find out. There was no suggestion of a deck over the beams.
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From the SABRE Wiki: Tomnahurich Roundabout :


The Tomnahurich Roundabout is a new junction in Inverness, built in the second half of 2016 as part of the Inverness West Link project. It allows access both to the West Link (A8082) route and a new canal bridge - this is to allow traffic to cross the canal when the original bridge has been swung to allow canal traffic to pass. All three exits are A82, as the new road is a branch of the A82 as far as Queens Park Roundabout. There, the A82 branch crosses the canal via a

... Read More
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Re: Inverness west link

Post by Duncan macknight »

rileyrob wrote: A drive down into Bught Park yielded a lot of high earth banks, but not a lot to see of the road itself. I wasn't quite clear whether these were screens to shelter the parks from the traffic, or if the road is at a higher level due to the canal bridge. The shape of the earthworks for the new Queens Roundabout (Inverness) was obvious, but no more. There was no suggestion of a connection into Bught Park, which seems a bit odd as the current route via Bught Drive is a bit convoluted.

I think I could also see the new bridge beams in place across the River Ness, but it was dusk and too late to go for a walk to find out. There was no suggestion of a deck over the beams.
I also went for a wander yesterday along the canal and I'm still not sure what the big lump of earth of for but I have seen diggers on top of them! Didn't see the bridging point but the beams still seem to be sat there. Went onto the road through the park and there's still quite a drop from the pavement onto the road so another layer will probably be added soon. It seems on schedule for completion in December anyway.

From the SABRE Wiki: Queens Roundabout (Inverness) :

REDIRECT [[Queens Park

... Read More
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Re: Inverness west link

Post by Glen »

The bridge beams are still being assembled on both sides, they are due to be lifted in place some time in February, keep a watch for a very large crane being set up.

The Queens Park Roundabout is laid out, the chevron block paving is done and the two precast pedestrian underpasses are in place. Most of the route has the kerbs in place, apart from either side of the river where the bridge is being constructed.
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Re: Inverness west link

Post by Glen »

I've posted photos of the construction progress from Autumn 2015 onwards on Flickr.

Current progress is that the tie in with the A82 is now complete:

Image

Much of the route has the kerbs laid and the first courses of surface down:

Image

Image

The Queen's Park Roundabout which will provide a stub for the second swing bridge to tie into has the underpasses to provide NMU access along and to the canal path in place and the road is under construction.

Image

The element of the project which will take the longest to complete will be the new crossing of the River Ness, the piers and abutments are constructed and the beams are being assembled on both sides of the river to be lifted in place soon.

Image

Image
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Re: Inverness west link

Post by Glen »

For anyone not keeping up to date on the Facebook group, the contractor has posted some aerial photos this week here.
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Re: Inverness west link

Post by jackal »

Glen wrote:Traffic following the A82, or heading for the A9 and A96, will still use the A82 (although the route for HGVs is signed via Kinmylies and Muirtown).

The Southern Distributor Road is to access areas or roads along its route and will be signed as such. It's a pretty circuitous route to use end to end.
Indeed, I count 13 roundabouts from the (current) A82 to A9!
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