I'm sure they could do it in just a few years, provided you don't mind the road being shut for all that time.
Still haven't heard why the road can't be dualled without being closed when other major roadworks are done while keepuing the road open.
The M74 completion was built through an urban landscape with few if any road closures. It's surely easier on open empty moorland.
The M74 extension is mostly on stilts at the sites where it intersected with existing traffic routes. But while roads weren't often closed they certainly were disrupted
However.... It did only take 40 years to plan 🙂
But with the M74 extension and the M77 extension before it - you're only talking a few miles and while the M77 / A77 wasn't closed it was certainly heavily disrupted and thats a stretch with only a handful of junctions to deal with
[quote=irc ]
Still haven't heard why the road can't be dualled without being closed when other major roadworks are done while keepuing the road open.
Some of the dualling will be done on the North bound side of the existing road and some on the Southbound side. In these cases, disruption might be kept to a minimum. However, there are other roads intersecting the current road that will need to be handled (e.g. if you decide to build on the Southbound side of the existing road as it passes Dunkeld, how do you get into and out of Dunkeld while the road works are going on).
These new sections will also need to be joined on to the existing single and dual carriageway sections at some point.
Existing bridges, culverts and underpasses will all need to be widened. In some cases this will need a whole new bridge to be built.
In the worst cases, the dualling will affect both North and Southbound sections as there isn't enough room on one side for two new lanes (plus cycle lane etc.)
Oh, here.... http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/project/a9-dualling-perth-inverness
Fill yer boots
Dualling the bloody thing is going to be a nightmare. Now we've got the cameras and we've all slowed down a bit can't we just leave it.
I'm sure someone has done the numbers but what is the economic effect of the speed cameras vs dualling the whole road. An extra 20 mins per person isnt a huge amount (though enough to be a bit annoying) but multiply that by the number of people on the road and the amount of money lost might be significant?
It's not "speed cameras vs dualling" and as the HGVs are reporting shorter journey times the economics are likely positive too.
If cameras reduce deaths, and evidence suggests they do, how many lost lives is it worth to save a few minutes on a trip?
(e.g. if you decide to build on the Southbound side of the existing road as it passes Dunkeld, how do you get into and out of Dunkeld while the road works are going on).
Dunkeld is going to be very difficult. There is very little room between the station and housing in Birnam.
Also, some of the land the new bits will be built on is protected (SSSI, SAC, SPA etc.) and so the extent of the works may need to be limited to reduce potential damage to the features of interest.
