A945

Riverside Drive, Aberdeen

The A945 was the number of Riverside Drive (formerly Riverside Road) in Aberdeen. It lost its number in 2020 following a significant reclassification of routes within Aberdeen.

As first classified in 1922, the route started on the A92 (later the A9013) Holburn Street a little north of Bridge of Dee, and ran along the north bank of the River Dee, passing under the Wellington Suspension Bridge and continuing along North Esplanade to the Victoria Bridge, where it met the B982. It then turned north and followed Market Street into the docks area, but curiously seems to have stopped somewhere near Commercial Quay, with the A96 picking up Market Street a block further on at Trinity Quay.

In 1924, the B982 was renumbered as the A956, and the A945 was extended to meet the A96 end on at Union Street (A92), assuming this wasn't an error on the original MOT map. This appears to have remained the case until the Queen Elizabeth Bridge was built in the early 1980s, and the A956 diverted across it. Earlier, when the A92 was re-routed across the new King George VI Bridge, the A945 may have been briefly extended along Holburn Street to the Garthdee Roundabout, however it seems that in fact it was actually extended along Riverside Drive, parallel to the A9013 in the 1960s, with the A945 later reverting to its original start point before 1982. At the other end of the route, when the A92 was moved again, out to the old city bypass the A956 was extended north to take over the former A92 route out through Bridge of Don, and so the A945 was curtailed at the junction at the west end of the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. This is the route it had up until 2020, when the whole route was declassified.

The 1922 MOT Road List defines this route as: Aberdeen (Market Street and North Esplanade)