Barnton Junction

Barnton Junction lies within the City of Edinburgh and is the junction of the A90, the A902 and Whitehouse Road. It was previously known as the Barnton Roundabout, but is now a signalised junction.

The A90 passes through the junction from east to west along Queensferry Road, as it heads out of the City Centre, while the A902 multiplexes with it from the east for a short distance, before turning south onto Maybury Road as it aims for the A8 and A720 city bypass. In many ways, Maybury Road is the north western end of the city bypass, and would perhaps be better numbered as part of the A720. To the north, the unclassified Whitehouse Road leads into Cramond.

As a very busy junction which routes traffic from the A902 to north Edinburgh and along the A90 between South Queensferry and central Edinburgh, this junction has seen many upgrades. The junction for Maybury Road did not exist when the roads were first classified in 1922, but the road was opened in 1927 and the A90s extended along it. At this time, the junction changed from the original T junction to a crossroads. Later, but perhaps only for a while in the 1980s, there were two roundabouts in close proximity, one for Whitehouse Road and the other for Maybury Road. The junction was subsequently signalised, and is again treated as a single crossroads, albeit with some unusually placed turning lanes to try to speed up traffic movements.

Today, movements along Queensferry Road are straightforward. There are filters for traffic turning into Whitehouse Road, and traffic turning left from the westbound A90 to Maybury Road can bypass most of the junction via a sliproad (which has a traffic light in the middle to allow pedestrians across) This also, rather bizarrely, seems to provide provision for traffic to make a U turn. The main complexity is for traffic turning right from Maybury Road: after lights near the end of Maybury Road it is channelled through the middle of the junction where there is enough space for two lines of four cars to queue for the next stage of the junction, until the next set of lights goes green. This reduces the time needed for vehicles to traverse the crossing, presumably providing a small increase in throughput.

Barnton Station, the terminus of a line from Edinburgh, was formerly to the northeast of the junction. For many years, the Barnton Hotel stood on this corner, a prominent landmark with its pointed tower; however it closed in the early 2000s and is now retirement housing.

1971 plan for an underpass

In the early 1970s there was a proposal for an S2 underpass as part of plans to continue the A720 City Bypass north of Gogar Roundabout. This would have required the demolition of some of the large houses on the north side of the A90. It is unclear if the underpass would have operated as one way, two way or tidal flow but its intention was to prevent additional traffic overloading the roundabout which the City Bypass extension would have brought.

Routes

Route	To	Notes
A90	Forth Road Bridge, Dalmeny, Queensferry
A90	City Centre, Davidson's Mains, Blackhall, Leith
A902	City Bypass (A720), Berwick-upon-Tweed (A1), Glasgow (M8), Stirling (M9), East Craigs, Corstorphine, Airport
	Cramond, Barnton