Council staff are to issue compulsory purchase orders (CPO) to obtain land needed for a city roads project more than a decade in the making.
The local authority is working to gain control of land surrounding South College Street to allow construction expansion of the road’s busy junction with Millburn Street and Palmsteron Place.
Last valued at around £5.5 million, the work – aimed at steering traffic way from the city centre – would also create a new turn-off towards South College Street from North Esplanade West.
This week councillors instructed officers to issue the CPOs needed to obtain construction rights in three areas.
The first would allow the expansion of Palmerston Place to accommodate the new slip road and another lane of traffic.
Another area between Wellington Place and South College Street and land between Millburn Street and Bank Street is also needed to make way for an additional lane of traffic.
These few remaining plots outwith council control do not contain any homes or businesses.
Improvements to South College Street were first discussed in 2004 but the project has had to overcome many hurdles to get to this point.
While CPOs might now be issued by the end of spring, any appeal process might add another 18 months to the process.
Councillors were told by senior council roads engineer Alan Mckay that issuing the orders would be a way to support the construction industry during the crisis, as it brings the start of work that bit closer.