Work could have started on four sections of the A9 but Transport Scotland left them languishing
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MSP Fergus Ewing has become one of the sharpest critics about the A9 dualling programme but even he was surprised to hear Transport Scotland say its own internal processes were not functioning.
He said: “What we learned at the petitions committee is that Transport Scotland appeared to admit that the existing way they procure roads projects is broken. The fact that they admitted that it was no longer fit for purpose was really a stark revelation.”
That alone has led to delays to the scheme as he outlined that four sections could have been advanced and when completed would mean more than half the project would be done.
He said: “There are no less than four sections, two sections ready for close on two years and two cases for about a year, so the explanation by [government official] Lawrence Shankman and his colleagues why these hadn’t gone ahead didn’t seem to me to be very convincing.
“What he did say was they were working out the best way to procure the projects and had been looking at ways to raise private finance but the implication of what he said was when the interest rates went up that option became much more expensive.
“The question that hasn’t really been answered, is why didn’t they just press ahead with the procurement of these first four options, or at least the first two of them over two years ago? If the commitment is so solid, why have they not proceeded?
“What I would say is that it emerged very clearly that four sections of the A9 could have been dualled, were ready to be dualled, had gone through the statutory process, therefore it seems to me completely unsatisfactory.”
