An interesting briefing in the Aberdeen Town House for parliamentarians and councillors this afternoon about the Aberdeen bypass. The end is in sight, but as to when that will be …
The joint venture building the road say they are now laying the top surface, 35mm of tar on a base including concrete. However the temperature needs to above 3C to 5C to do that. Thicker tar, such as on side roads, can be laid in temperatures as low as zero, apparently.
That’s why there is such hesitancy about saying how long it will take to finish the road and open it to traffic. It all depends on the weather. And the cold blast heading our way from Siberia does not help.
In the meanwhile other works are progressing, such as the planting of 1.8 million trees and installing street lights where required.
Currently there is a workforce of about 1600, down from the peak for roughly 2500. It is currently the longest road building project in the UK.
Once it opens the new road will become the A90 and the existing road will be the A92. Responsibility for the current A90 from Charleston to Blackdog will transfer in due course from Transport Scotland to Aberdeen City Council. The Stonehaven to Charleston road will remain a trunk road (i.e. Transport Scotland).
I also raised two local issues – the hammering taken by our country roads from AWPR traffic and pollution of our burns and streams. Agreement has still to be finalised with the councils over repairs to the country roads. In the meantime Aberdeenshire Council is trying to keep these roads safe. They are certainly not in the state anyone would want them to be. Regarding pollution, the contractors are confident that they have resolved that issue. They work closely with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
Finally, their safety record has overall been good, with one million man hours (that’s how it was described) completed without an injury accident. However last week there was a minor accident which is still be investigated.
By the way, we heard from a former transport minister that it was in 2003 that the project was announced by the then first minister. Fifteen years later it will be a reality.