Inverness Motorists Face More Disruption

Inverness city centre is facing further roads disruption on top off the ongoing controversial street and pavement turmoil caused by the Streetscape contract.

Motorists face five weeks of single-lane traffic and temporary traffic lights as work to speed up the flow of traffic – and give Inverness its first bus lane, although only 40ft long – is carried out.

Highland Council hopes the pounds250,000 scheme at the junction of Millburn Road and Crown Drive will improve congestion along a key route through the Highland capital.

The scheme will involve the re-engineering the traffic islands and signals at the Crown Road junction with Millburn Road to create the short bus lane heading into the city centre towards Academy Street.

Lights will be set to give buses a head-start on other vehicles.

The busy bus-stop layby across the road at Falcon Square will also be extended to allow two buses to stop there, and a lane for traffic turning right off Millburn Road into the Falcon Gallery car park will also be lengthened.

Road engineers claim that the short 40ft bus lane will improve journey times on public transport and encourage more people to take the bus instead of their car.

There was concern yesterday at the prospect of further city- centre disruption, but on the whole the scheme was stoically welcomed by business leaders if it would prevent traffic jams and help the flow of traffic.

Local shoe shop owner Garek Begg, who is also chairman of the Inverness Business Improvement District steering group, said: “Buses bring custom into the town centre and we must not lose sight of that. But it is difficult to say how they can improve things without some sort of roadworks.”

Casia Zajac, of Inverness Chamber of Commerce, said: “Like any modern growing city, Inverness is under immense pressure to improve traffic congestion and at the same time satisfy businesses and their customers’ needs.

“There is no easy answer to this challenge, but one of these has to be improving public transport and therefore bus schedules and ease of access for buses.”

Crown Community Council chairwoman Pat Hayden said a bus lane was an “excellent idea”. And one bus company which runs services in the city said they were pleased with the scheme.

Charlie Mullen, managing director of Stagecoach Bluebird, said the company had changed services in October to improve reliability.

He added: “This scheme will help to improve journeys times into the city centre for passengers from the east, and improves stop facilities for passengers returning to the east from the city centre.”

Roadworks will start on Monday and last for five weeks.

The council has advised motorists to take alternative routes.

Their integrated transport manager, Cameron Kemp, said that construction of the three elements would be phased, starting with the Falcon Gallery lane, and disruption would be kept to a minimum.

The works are the latest in a long list for drivers going through the city centre.

The ongoing Streetscape project means that most traffic is banned from Union Street and part of Church Street. The route was closed in November for up to eight months for the works.

Academy Street was also affected by roadworks in October 2006 when a major gas mains contract meant that the central route was closed to eastbound traffic.

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