Aviemore junction plans revealed for A9 dualling

Aviemore and traffic heading across country from the strath will continue to be served by two junctions at either end of the village off the A9, Transport Scotland chiefs have confirmed.

The agency went public with its plans for dualling the road between Dalraddy and the Slochd at two public exhibitions at Aviemore Community Centre and next day at Carrbridge Village Hall.

The Strathy had already revealed that highly controversial plans for a ‘central’ Aviemore junction option had been ruled out because of little public support and its impact on the Cragellachie Nature Reserve amongst other reasons.

Junctions serving Aviemore will remain at Granish, north of Aviemore and Lynwilg south of the village, but the lay-out of the connections has yet to be agreed with several proposals drawn up and awaiting public repsonse. Similarly, Blackmount which connects the A9 with Carrbridge will remain with the design still to be agreed.

Transport bosses also said that the landmark soldier’s helmet by the A9 at the Slochd - a protruding rock in the shape of a soldier wearing a World War I German helmet - would not be affected by carriage widening plans as things stand.

One Aviemore residents attending the exhibition in the village, Paul Masson, of Craig-na-Gower Avenue, said he was relieved that heavy traffic would not be directed into the centre of the village.

He commented: "The central junction would have split the village in half. There are a lot of kids living at the new housing development by the Pony’s Field and all of a sudden they could have had the main access off the A9 coming past their front doors.

"I thought it was bonkers from a health and safety point of view having a main arterial route coming right into the centre of Aviemore joining at the redundant roundabout - as I call it - by the RBS bank."

Mr Masson also said that a lot more work would need to be done on the Granish junction to ensure that traffic joining the A95 Aviemore-Keith whisky road runs smoothly. "I’m in favour of the north and south junctions staying but the final plans need to be looked at in detail," he said.

He also believes that there could be engineering issues trying to accommodate the dualled road between the Macdonald Aviemore Resort and the Craigellachie nature reserve given the lack of space.

Also at the unveiling were Aviemore couple Alex and Judy Burns-Smith who also backed the decision to drop the central junction.

"It was madness to have everything going through the village," said Mrs Burns-Smith. "Also in the event of accidents, it is good having a loop which runs parallel to the A9."

Her husband said: "The north entrance and the south entrance are really good for the tourism industry. Traffic turning off at the south end can head off to Rothiemurchus and the Cairngorm ski road without going through the village.

"The north junction allows traffic to head off towards Boat of Garten, Carrbridge and Speyside without entering Aviemore so to me it makes sense to have two entry points, and also for emergency services as well. It is vital that they can access the A9 quickly."

He added: "I only wish we could curtail some of the big trucks coming through the village. I do feel that now the time has come to look at a petrol filling station and proper facilities for the trunk drivers on the A9 itself. Years ago it was mooted then but people were against it because they did not want to be bypassed.

"But now cars can go 600 miles without needing to be refuelled therefore motorists heading to Inverness may not even bother to turn off into the villages any more. The complaint is also that these lorries are taking up laybys and parking up overnight so a lorry park could solve this."

However, Aviemore-based Highland councillor Bill Lobban was not impressed and said he was overcome by a sense of ‘déjà vu’. "Despite having sung Transport Scotland’s praises over the way they were consulting with local communities, they appear to have slipped back into quango mode where consultation does not mean actually listening," he said.

"Their headline news was the removal of plans for a third Aviemore junction, no surprise there then as that option was never going to fly in any case. But looking closer at the plans they continue to give priority to dead end forestry tracks on all three junctions and at Blackmount for some inexplicable reason priority is given to the road from Slochd Cottages.

"No improvement is forthcoming on the inherently dangerous Aviemore North and A95 junction and one plan still shows no north bound access to Carrbridge. They should get a gold star for consultation maybe but a definite black mark for listening."

There are three A9 junction options on the table for Lynwilg and two lay-out for Granish, and three options for Blackmount.

Transport Scotland bosses said it was always their intention for Aviemore to be served by two junctions off the new dualled road with Granish remaining in one form or another but what had been up for debate had been whether there was a new central junction or if the connection should remain south of the village,

A spokesman said: "We are currently progressing the design work across the dualling programme with construction already well underway on the Kincraig to Dalraddy project. The full construction programme has not yet been developed and is likely to take shape as we further progress the design and development work for the remaining projects.

"As we have not yet selected the preferred route for this section of the A9 to be dualled, it is too early to comment on if any properties will have to demolished. As we progress our plans any impact on properties will be taken into account."

The spokesman said the issue of the Tomatin southern access to the A9 - which has prompted concern that it could be lost as part of the dualling - did not come under this latest consultation.

He said: "The Tomatin southern access is on the existing dual carriageway so is outside the extents of both the Dalraddy to Sloch and Tomatin to Moy projects, but work is being undertaken to consider the access, taking account of feedback from locals."

As for the German soldier’s helmet, he said: "We are aware of this undesignated feature and at present the mainline widening options on display at the public exhibition do not indicate any effect on it. However, we are still developing our proposals for this stretch of the route."

Representatives from Transport Scotland and consultants Atkins Mouchel were on hand at the two public exhibitions to answer questions from the public.

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