Inverness interchange set for £2 million safety improvements
Road agency Transport Scotland said the Raigmore Interchange, a large roundabout with a flyover linking the A9, A96 and B865, which takes traffic into the city, will be revamped by installing new signal crossings and realigning some paths.
Traffic lights are also to operate on a full-time basis to better control the flow of vehicles through the interchange, ending decades of campaigning for vital safety improvements by locals.
Currently, there are only lights in operation at peak times on the A9 southbound.
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The busy Inverness roundabout has been a notorious traffic bottleneck and accident hotspot for years.
Traffic Scotland said the traffic lights would operate as a fully signalised junction with stop lines on the A9 southbound, A9 northbound, B865, and A96 sections of the interchange.
A spokesperson said: 'The traffic lights will operate various phases to allow conflicting flows of traffic to be permanently controlled.
'This will improve safety and allow efficient flow of traffic around the junction, with pedestrian phases operating in conjunction and when the push buttons are activated to satisfy the demand.'
Welcoming the news, Anne Thomas, who has campaigned for improvements to the interchange as part of the Highland Cycle Campaign, said the revamp had been a long time coming.
She told the Inverness Courier: 'It's been a very long-running campaign. It's probably 20 years or so of campaigning on that junction and probably even before my time in the Highland Cycle Campaign.
'There's one branch been signalised [at present] and the rest is a bit of a nightmare for active travel.
'Since the [fatal] accident, the speed restrictions have come in and I think that has helped a bit, but it's still a major block in active travel from Inverness to the retail park and coming from the Black Isle likewise. Anyone thinking of taking children or teenagers on that route would think twice.
'I really welcome the improvements.'
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