Design work starts on Inverness West Link Road project

The Highland Council has appointed Capita Symonds to assist the Council’s Project Design Unit in providing detailed design civil engineering and supporting services for the new £27.2 million Inverness West Link Road. 

The new road – situated at the western boundary of Inverness city – will link the Southern Distributor Road at Dores Road with the A82 Trunk Road at Torvean and will also include a new crossing of the River Ness and the Caledonian Canal. 

Coupled with this the outcomes of the recent Charrette and land use strategy will be integrated with the revised road network in this area.  The new road will include allowances for enhancing the recreational facilities and providing improved cycling and walking infrastructure within the design area.
 
The detailed design work will include the preparation of the drawings and details and the specifications for each construction element of the project in readiness for the Council to prepare tender documents.  The detailed design work will produce an earthworks and construction footprint and include the necessary information to allow the Highland Council to obtain all statutory consents for the work.  This will include traffic orders, land acquisition and CPO plans as well as an environmental statement and the detailed plans for a planning application.

The commission for this stage of the project which includes soils investigation and environmental surveys will take around 12 months and will allow the Council to move forward with publication of Orders and submission of a planning application.  When all consents are in place it is intended to subdivide the construction of the project into 2 phases.  The first phase will cross the river Ness and link the Dores Road Roundabout with the A82 Trunk Road and the second phase will provide for the tandem crossing of the Caledonian Canal at Torvean.

Councillor Graham Phillips, Chairman of the Council’s Transport Environmental and Community Services Committee, said: “This is a significant piece of work, which will help move the project forward and I am pleased  that the detailed design work has now started in earnest.  It is important that we maintain our momentum on this key project and deliver a new link road that will free up the traffic pressure in the Inverness City centre as well as providing the framework for an enhanced land use master plan for the Torvean and Ness-side areas of Inverness.”