190603Paper4A9Dualling

CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FOR­UM PAPER 4 20^th June 2019

CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FORUM

Title: A9 Dualling Pro­ject: Dalraddy to Slo­chd — Multi-use Path

Pre­pared by: Pete Crane Head of Vis­it­or Services

Pur­pose: To update mem­bers on the multi-use path design for A9 Dualling Project

Advice Sought

On wheth­er our pos­i­tion is clear and wheth­er we need to com­mu­nic­ate this bet­ter with com­munit­ies and interest groups.

Stra­tegic Con­text and Background

1. The dualling of the A9 between Perth and Inverness is one of Scotland’s largest infra­struc­ture pro­jects. The pro­gramme will upgrade 80 miles (129 kilo­metres) of road from single to dual car­riage­way. Trans­port Scotland’s £3 bil­lion pro­gramme is designed to deliv­er eco­nom­ic growth through improved road safety and reli­able and quick­er jour­ney times, as well as bet­ter links to ped­es­tri­an, cyc­ling and pub­lic trans­port facil­it­ies. The Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment has com­mit­ted to com­plet­ing the work by 2025. This is an ambi­tious dead­line for a pro­ject of this size and complexity.
2. The scheme object­ives for the A9 dualling pro­gramme are:

a) To improve the oper­a­tion­al per­form­ance of the A9 by: i) Redu­cing jour­ney times; and ii) Improv­ing jour­ney time reliability.

b) To improve safety for motor­ised and Non-Motor­ised Users (NMUs) by: i) Redu­cing acci­dent sever­ity; and ii) Redu­cing driver stress.

c) To facil­it­ate act­ive travel with­in the cor­ridor; and

d) To improve integ­ra­tion with Pub­lic Trans­port facilities

1. The cur­rent designs for the dualling have an off road multi path from Kin­gussie to Aviemore but none to Car­rbridge with Trans­port Scot­land main­tain­ing that either the cur­rent NCN7 using B970 and B9153 (Aviemore, Coylumbridge Boat of Garten,

CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FOR­UM PAPER 4 20^th June 2019

Carr-bridge), or Spey­side Way or exist­ing A9 tracks (neither dir­ect or tar­mac multi- use) are suf­fi­cient in cater­ing for needs.

Pub­lic Con­sulta­tion & Objections

1. Trans­port Scot­land under­took the stat­utory pub­lic con­sulta­tion in Aug/​Sept 2018 and fol­low­ing email com­mu­nic­a­tion CLOAF sup­por­ted CNPA’s assess­ment that the design did not meet TS scheme object­ives or sup­port our Act­ive Cairngorms Strategy or the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan with the spe­cif­ic tar­get of increas­ing act­ive travel.

2. In Septem­ber 2018 CNPA board agreed to object to the pro­pos­als between Aviemore and the junc­tion to the north of Car­rbridge due to the inad­equate pro­vi­sion for non-motor­ised users and incon­sist­ency with the over­all Scheme object­ives for the A9 dualling programme.

3. The pro­pos­als were also objec­ted to for lack of pur­pose built multi-use path by:-

a) High­land Coun­cil b) Aviemore and Vacin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil c) Boat of Garten Com­munity Coun­cil d) Car­rbridge Com­munity Coun­cil e) Tomat­in Com­munity Coun­cil (out­with CNP)

Res­ol­u­tion

1. In Feb­ru­ary Trans­port Scot­land met with CNPA, High­land Coun­cil, Sus­trans and Hitrans and agreed to fund a feas­ib­il­ity study to look at options to cre­ate a tar­mac off road muti-use path between Aviemore and Car­rbridge link­ing to A9153 north of Carr-bridge (on road). This design is in pro­gress but no intial out­puts have been shared and there is, bey­ond the study, cur­rently no clear com­mit­ment to build and main­tain this route.

2. CNPA and High­land Coun­cil are main­tain­ing their objec­tions, and we under­stand this is also the same for the four com­munity coun­cils, until we have clar­ity about the design, build and main­ten­ance of any pro­posed route. We are in com­mu­nic­a­tion with the three com­munity coun­cils with­in Nation­al Park that have objec­ted but are awat­ing more inform­a­tion on the design before we meet again.

Pete Crane Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices petecrane@​cairngorms.​co.​uk