Dave Thompson MSP

Dave Thompson SNP MSP for Badenoch has commented on the belated information received from Transport Scotland regarding the four hour closure of the A9 overnight next Thursday (26th Feb).

He said, "It is a cause of regret that Transport Scotland did not publicise this closure weeks ago so that the good folk of Badenoch could if necessary make alternate arrangements."

He went on, "This has been compounded by a miscommunication of the scale of the exercise, which I note they have apologised for in the email below."

He finished with, "I applaud the professional way the staff at Transport Scotland exercise their responsibility to provide safe infrastructure.

"This trial is an example of that engineering professionalism, as is the effective way Transport Scotland has rolled out the Average Speed Cameras on the A9.

"It is to be hoped that the concerns raised by elected representatives about how this has been communicated will help Transport Scotland ensure that such miscommunication does not happen again."

Notes:

Message from Stewart Leggett:

I regret that a notice was given in error to suggest the A9 would be closed overnight on 5 nights next week.

The planned closure is in fact just for a total of 4 hours on one night only, programmed for Thursday 26th  February. This will be for 1 two-hour period and for 2 one-hour periods. The closure length is less than 4 miles between the A9 Granish and A9 Lynwilg junctions and the diversion is via the B9152; and BEAR are happy to treat the diversion route through Aviemore as standard protocol.

The A9 was selected for the trial as it receives the greatest level of winter service of any trunk road in Scotland and has a specialist road weather sensor within the closure area. The trial also requires to be conducted in winter weather conditions and with trunk road traffic.  The trial itself will test the performance of our current pre-wet salt treatments with that of a brine only treatment now being used in Scandinavia, other parts of Europe and the US. If successful it could lead to a more effective and resilient treatment of Scotland's roads.  Given the nature of the trial, experts from Sweden, Switzerland and the UK's Transport Research Laboratory will be present.  The Highland Council roads officials have also accepted an invitation to meet with the research team.

As trunk road traffic requires to be diverted through Aviemore to allow the treatments and measurements to be undertaken; we acknowledge that this will have a degree of disruption to both the local community and strategic traffic, but we anticipate these impacts to be low as the traffic volumes on the A9 indicate less than 250 vehicles an hour will be affected in the first two hour closure period and less than 100 vehicles in the subsequent 1 hour closures.

Programme of Trial

·         8pm to 10pm – Road closed and salt measurements undertaken

·         10pm to midnight – Carriageways re-opened and trafficked

·         Midnight to 1am - Road closed and salt measurements undertaken

·         1am to 5am – Carriageways re-opened and trafficked

·         5am to 6am - Road closed and salt measurements undertaken

·         6am – Carriageways re-opened following removal of all traffic management

Please accept our apologies for the mis-communication and the anxiety this has caused, particularly during the busy winter tourist season.  Transport Scotland will bring all stakeholders together to review procedures to ensure going forward the communities, their elected members and all road users are given the necessary information at the appropriate time.  Traffic Scotland are updating the website accordingly.  A second trial site is planned for the A1 on Tuesday 24th February and the diversion route through Dunbar has approval from East Lothian Council.

Transport Scotland will be happy to meet representatives locally next week to give more information on the trial if that would be of interest.

I hope the above is helpful and explains the importance of the planned closure.

Regards,

Stewart