Construction of the Raigmore bus gate in Inverness has started and will be finished by the end of summer.
It will link the Raigmore estate with the north’s flagship hospital.
Once completed, it should cut congestion for public transport users.
At the moment, buses head into the hospital site and then loop round to re-join the often congested Old Perth Road.
Under the new plan, buses will instead travel through the hospital site and come out at Ashton Road – bypassing a huge amount of traffic.
Highland Council has said the new route will be finished by August 31.
What has been happening?
A section of the pavement at Ashton Road has been cordoned off.
Workers have also fenced off a derelict building close to the Phoenix Centre which will be demolished as part of the construction plans.
The Raigmore bus link plan dates back over a decade, when it was first mooted as part of a traffic mitigation plan for Inverness Campus.
Then, NHS Highland was granted planning permission for a new treatment centre at Raigmore.
One of the council’s planning conditions in granting that approval was for improved public transport links.
A previous proposal in 2021 was dubbed “bonkers” and “tortuous” by Highland Council’s planning committee.
There had been a number of environmental and safety concerns.
But the council and NHS Highland worked together on a new plan that gathered more support.
The new application was approved in December 2022.
Why was the earlier bus gate controversial?
Trees being cut down and the noise and pollution of extra buses was the focus of most of the anger last time.
It was going to result in the loss of eight trees, some of which were hundreds of years old.
The 590ft road was going to cut through hospital grounds, coming within 7ft of residential homes and only 3ft from treatment centres.
Residents were not happy.
A petition was started that gathered around 350 signatures. A banner was also put up at the site.
The application itself drew five letters of support and 49 objections.
To address the worries, the route was re-drawn so that no trees will be taken down.
And to lessen the disruption, the buses passing through will be electric.
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