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No end in sight to A9 misery
Page 10
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Scotland's operators will have to carry on enduring the misery of the A9 after ministers rejected dualling plans. Guy Sheppard reports.
HAULIERS ARE SPLIT over how to upgrade the A9 after the Scottish Executive said dualling the entire I 14-mile section between Perth and Inverness would be too expensive.
Transport Minister Tavish Scott said such a project would cost more than £600m which would "inevitably mean that existing priorities would have to stop".
The issue was raised following 82 deaths on the road during the past five years.
Scott has promised to bring forward recommendations on how accident levels might he reduced but one option has polarised opinion among hauliers.
This involves building more 'two-by-one' sections of road where there are two lanes in one direction and one in the other to prevent long tailbacks of traffic behind trucks and other slow moving traffic.
Robert Docherty, manager of parcels delivery company M&H Couriers (Inverness), says such sections offer a safe way of overtaking trucks over 18 tonnes that can only be driven at 40mph.
-Our 7.5-tonners can go up to 50mph so it's quicker for us and for car drivers as well,he adds.
But Andrew Black, MD of Andrew Black Haulage & Storage, based near North Berwick, describes the idea of two-by-one sections as a disaster: "It holds up traffic and when you come to the two-lane section everyone is trying to overtake at once. It is just totally dangerous."
A spokesman for the Scottish Executive says there are currently two sections of two-by-one lane on the A9 and three more are at the design stage.
-It is possible there may he more in the future," he adds.