Third Don crossing plan moves ahead

Officials asked to look into designs

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COUNCILLORS in Aberdeen agreed yesterday to press ahead with controversial plans for a third bridge crossing of the River Don.

Local authority officials have been instructed to prepare detailed designs for the £8.4million bridge proposed between Tillydrone and Grandholm.

Enterprise, planning and infrastructure committee members approved the move despite opposition from Labour councillors, and also backed plans for a £25million upgrade of the Berryden corridor.

The proposal would see the route from Skene Square, through Berryden Road and on to Great Northern Road turned into a dual carriageway, although Labour members branded the scheme “pie in the sky”.

Both projects have long been proposed to tackle traffic congestion in the north of the city, and committee convener Kate Dean said it was time they were delivered.

She said: “We need to get on with it. We need to get building because it is vital for the city that we do. I was in Bridge of Don this week and if I had a pound for everyone who said, ‘Get on with it and build that bridge’, then I’d be a much richer lady than I am.”

She added all the options for improvements at the city’s notoriously congested Haudagain roundabout would not work without the third Don crossing.

Opposition Labour councillors said Mrs Dean would have found very different views on the proposed bridge if she had been at Tillydrone, where many residents have long feared its impact on the community.

Labour group leader Barney Crockett said: “It is no secret that for many years the Labour Party has opposed the third Don crossing. We need another type of solution that doesn’t bring a whole lot of traffic into areas that can’t cope with it at the moment.”

Detailed design work will also be prepared for a new dual-carriageway at the Berryden corridor.