Plans to build a flyover at one of the most notorious junctions in the north-east have moved a step further.
Members of Aberdeenshire Council’s infrastructure services committee have endorsed Nestrans’ proposals for a grade-separated junction across the A90 Aberdeen to Dundee road at Laurencekirk.
A huge number of fatal and serious accidents have taken place at the road’s south junction with the A937 Laurencekirk to Montrose road throughout the years.
And yesterday, committee chairman, David Aitchison, said the progress was a “milestone of local efforts to see safety improvements” at the blackspot.
He added: “It’s been crying out for something for a long, long time. Clearly, even if we accept the reasoning in the report, there’s a significant amount of work to be done.”
Westhill councillor Ron McKail added: “If the media is to be believed, this is the third most dangerous junction in the whole of the UK. If that is correct, it is the most dangerous road in Scotland.
“I only hope I live to see it – it will be a great credit to Aberdeenshire Council.”
However last night campaigner Jill Fotheringham – who has been fighting for action since the death of 20-year-old Jamie Graham at the junction in 2004 – said the committee’s endorsement felt like “delaying tactics”.
She added that residents of Laurencekirk and the surrounding area “need funding not an endorsement” for the project.
Transport Scotland, Nestrans and the council are yet to agree who will fund the project.
Ms Fotheringham said: “I am very pleased that Aberdeenshire Council have endorsed this, but why are they even bothering when there is this issue of funding?
“The potential for a fatality at the junction increases every day. I know so many people that are crossing every day and then there is the fact there is school buses crossing it as well.”
