D-Day for Choosing Route for Inverness Trunk Link Road
A special meeting of The Highland Council is set to be held on Thursday 27 September when councillors will be asked to confirm the preferred route for the Inverness trunk link road.
The Council is eager to finalise the line of the link road so that it can submit a bid in October to Transport Scotland for inclusion in the Strategic Transport Projects Review. The estimated cost is £75 million.
The eastern link will see a link from the A 96 at Smithton to the A 9 at Inshes and at the western end will link Dores Road through to the A 82 at Torvean.
The Council has already decided that the eastern section of the road should be built first to ease traffic congestion and permit development, such as the UHI Millennium Institute campus at Beechwood Farm, with construction earmarked between 2010 and 2012. This would see traffic taken off-line from a new interchange at Smithton to a new interchange at Inshes and will include a new access to the A 9.
Construction of the western link from Dores Road to a new roundabout on the A 82 at General Booth Road is timetabled between 2012 and 2015. This will involve the crossing of River Ness by bridge and either a high level opening bridge or an aqueduct /tunnel to cross the Caledonian Canal.
Consulting engineers, Scott Wilson, who have been engaged to carry out the Inverness Connectivity Study, and Council transport officials will be recommending the preferred route following key stakeholder consultations over the next month.
In the timetable, it is proposed that that finalised conceptual design will be ready by June, next year; a planning application will be submitted in July, next year and the outcome of the application for funding from Transport Scotland is anticipated in August, next year.
The construction of a new golf course at Charleston, to replace Torvean Golf Club, is timetabled for 2008/9, which will allow ground to settle/mature before use. The new course will be playable before the existing course is required for road construction and as a single entity will offer better facilities than the existing course which is split by roads into three parts.
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