The A9000 is the new number for the former A90 across the Forth Road Bridge It 'starts' at the Scotstoun Junction on the M90 and crosses the bridge to terminate at Ferrytoll Junction again on the M90. The bridge was renumbered on the opening of the Queensferry Crossing on 30 August 2017, but unlike almost any other classified road in Britain, it is limited to public transport vehicles and non-motorway users for its entire length. The old bridge retains the facility to accept motorway traffic in the case of a closure of the new bridge, but in the first five years of operation this has been a rare occurrence, mainly down to overnight testing of the system rather than live incidents.
Due to the manner in which the new bridge has been knitted into the old road system, the south end of the A9000 is a little confusing. The southbound lanes feed directly into the A90 heading for Edinburgh, with no direct permanent connection to the new motorway connection. For traffic wishing to cross the A9000 in a northbound direction, therefore, the normal start point is at the next junction, Echline Junction. This junction remains virtually unchanged from when it connected the A904 to the A90. The main difference is the dearth of traffic passing underneath, and the complete lack of northbound traffic under normal circumstances. Between these two junctions, the A9000 has an at-grade junction with the M90. This is normally closed, with cones on the southbound M90 and a temporary / movable barrier in the central reservation. Southbound traffic from the A9000 is therefore directed onto the 'sliproad' which under normal circumstances is the mainline, and leads onto the A90 at Scotstoun as noted above.
The Bridge itself remains as it was before the Queensferry Crossing was opened, with two lanes and a hard shoulder in each direction. There is no pedestrian provision on the new bridge, so this is retained on the old Forth Road Bridge, but there are now gaps in the barriers, which means that pedestrians and cyclists can cross the old motorway on the level at each end of the crossing. The lack of traffic using the bridge also means that cyclists can cross the bridge on the roadway rather than the segregated cycle lane.
At the north end, there is a similar set up to allow traffic to divert onto the old bridge if necessary. There is a barrier in place of cones across the mouth of the connection, which was rebuilt on a new alignment to meet the new curvature on the M90 heading for the new bridge. The close proximity to Ferrytoll Junction, however, means that diverted traffic also has to cross hatched areas and the southbound onslip between the main carriageways. In practice therefore, it seems that diverted traffic has used the sliproads from the Ferrytoll Roundabout to reach the old bridge, which is the normal route for permitted traffic on the A9000.
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