Baberton Junction

Baberton Junction is a junction on the City of Edinburgh Bypass. The roundabout that forms part of it is called Clovenstone Roundabout. East of the roundabout is where the oldest section of the current A720 runs, forming a bypass of Hailes and Colinton to the A702. The junction, therefore, was finished more or less in its current form when the section from here to the A8 opened. Possibly this is why it only provides access to the south, not to the north-western section of the bypass. Mapping suggests that the connection in to Baberton may not have been completed when the junction was first built, but connected up after the bypass was opened to the north. This would make sense as the connection to Baberton would potentially have added a lot of conflicting traffic movements to the junction which at the time was carrying all of the A720 traffic.

The junction is notable for not offering a direct route from the bypass to a main road out of the city, whereas most other junctions intersect with a radial such as the A71 and A702 to either side. Instead traffic leaving the bypass meets the minor road Baberton Mains View at a T-junction, although traffic to the bypass goes directly from Clovenstone Roundabout. Baberton Junction therefore primarily serves Baberton and Wester Hailes and only indirectly connects to the A70 Lanark Road. The most likely explanation for this is that the A70 and A720 cross at a point where housing and development was already sited close to the crossover, and the need to demolish housing in what is a rather affluent part of the city would have been resisted. The close proximity to the Water of Leith to the south would also have added extra expense with extra bridges, or a wider bridge required. None of this, however, explains why Baberton itself wasn't made full access when the northern part of the bypass opened. There is room to build the extra sliproads, but instead the existing slips from the temporary terminus were retained on their own.

Routes

Route	To	Notes
A720	Glasgow (M8), Stirling (M9), Forth Road Bridge (A90)	no access from B701
A720	Berwick upon Tweed (A1), Edinburgh South & East, Leith
B701	Edinburgh West & North, Westside Plaza, Wester Hailes Station, Car Park
B701	City Centre, Lanark (A70), Colington, Currie, Balerno
	Clovenstone, Hailesland, Clovenstone Primary School, Baptist Church
	Baberton, Juniper Green Primary School