A9 upgrade will bring major economic benefits, new report
The lack of service areas on the A9 has been identified as one of the main issues in a new report on the benefits of linking all of Scotland’s cities by dual carriageway.
The Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) is behind the findings published yesterday (Wednesday) outlining the spin-offs from the upgrades to the A9 between Perth and Inverness and the A96 between the Highland capital and Aberdeen.
Key benefits in fully dualling the A9 include:
• the increased attractiveness of the area for investment, reduced transport costs and improved business confidence;
• productivity gains from reduced journey times and less stressful journeys; and
• safer journeys for visitors and staff, with fewer significant disruptions.
The SCDI surveyed 210 companies across a wide-range of sectors and sizes on behalf of Transport Scotland.
Well over half of respondents rated the current A9 as poor or very poor on safety, service area availability, journey time reliability, journey time, and comfort/feel of ease when driving, including 70% rating it as poor or very poor for safety.
Mr Michael Urquhart, SCDI Highlands and Islands Chairman, said: "Businesses clearly regard the existing roads as sub- standard and there are significant direct negative impacts on a large number of businesses across key sectors . . . .
"Improvements to these trunk roads to enable increased economic development have been high priorities for SCDI for many years and this report provides a strong case for the Scottish Government to continue to make progress with this work."
Scottish Transport Minister Keith Brown has welcomed the findings.
• The full report can be found at: http://www.scdi.org.uk/downloads/SCDI_A9_A96_Research_Paper_2013.pdf
