Motorway through Edinburgh?

[The_Exile]

Had never heard of this before, the plans looks mental and amazingly were given the green light in the 60's!!

http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/entertainment/edinburgh-s-unbuilt-inner-ring-road-1-4564604

[Colr]

When I was at the Art School, I was shown an approved plan from the 60s to demolish the existing building along with the west end of the Grassmarket to replace it with a new school, tower blocks in the Grassmarket and a concrete bridge linking to two across to Johnson Terrace!!

[Mr White]

I'd heard of the Abercrombie Plan before but this more recent one reads like it got quite a bit closer to becoming reality. I'm grateful to those who ensured it didn't happen as it would have had a devastating effect on such a beautiful city.

[Gatecrasher]

I'm sure nearly everyone is happy this never went ahead, Edinburgh is a nice city in some places and this would have killed a lot of the historic feel to the city. That being said the north of the city is really lacking a main road but I think we are starting to get passed the point where infrastructure like this is favoured and public transport is now being seen as the preferred option.

[Smartie]

I think my Dad managed to buy the flat that became my first home as a result of this.

He was a student who started Uni in 1972. A lot of the properties earmarked for this route were snapped up in advance of the demolition (not sure who by) but when the plans were shelved, the property was then sold off.

He bought a one bedroom flat on Home Street in Tollcross for (I think) £20,000 at some point in the mid seventies, before I joined him and my Mum in 1977.

That was a fair amount of cash in those days, but he says that there was a huge amount of top notch property that became available after these plans were shelved that represented an even bigger opportunity.

He tried to get my grandad involved (who was a fairly prosperous character) but the miserable old bugger wouldn't dig deep, so my Dad worked an insane number of jobs whilst at Uni in order to get that first foot on the property ladder.

The motorway system was to be "Edinburgh's M8" and seemingly it came very close to happening, and our city would have looked very different indeed.

[Beefster]

Couldn’t be any worse than the shambles that is the City Bypass.

[RyeSloan]

Couldn’t be any worse than the shambles that is the City Bypass.

Well it could really....although the bypass was clearly built on the cheap it's still serves a critical purpose. Can you imagine all that traffic having to go through the city?

The main problem (apart from no hard shoulder in many places) with the bypass is the roundabouts. Quite why they can't find the money or desire to link it directly to the M8 and remove sheriffhall and link he end of the road directly to the A1 I have no idea....that would significantly improve traffic flow without the need to widen the road (although I think they should do that as well)

The reasonably new infrastructure around the M9 spur and the subsequent linking to the M8 is good and in quiet times you can zoom from Fife to the A1 really easily...sadly the bottle necks mentioned above soon mean that it's far from plain sailing at busy times!!

[Mibbes Aye]

Well it could really....although the bypass was clearly built on the cheap it's still serves a critical purpose. Can you imagine all that traffic having to go through the city?

The main problem (apart from no hard shoulder in many places) with the bypass is the roundabouts. Quite why they can't find the money or desire to link it directly to the M8 and remove sheriffhall and link he end of the road directly to the A1 I have no idea....that would significantly improve traffic flow without the need to widen the road (although I think they should do that as well)

The reasonably new infrastructure around the M9 spur and the subsequent linking to the M8 is good and in quiet times you can zoom from Fife to the A1 really easily...sadly the bottle necks mentioned above soon mean that it's far from plain sailing at busy times!!

Sheriffhall is awful, though a lot worse before it was laned and lighted.

If you removed it though you would lose the A7 connection. It's not great but as it is but can you imagine what the Justinlees roundabout would become like?

[BroxburnHibee]

Well it could really....although the bypass was clearly built on the cheap it's still serves a critical purpose. Can you imagine all that traffic having to go through the city?

The main problem (apart from no hard shoulder in many places) with the bypass is the roundabouts. Quite why they can't find the money or desire to link it directly to the M8 and remove sheriffhall and link he end of the road directly to the A1 I have no idea....that would significantly improve traffic flow without the need to widen the road (although I think they should do that as well)

The reasonably new infrastructure around the M9 spur and the subsequent linking to the M8 is good and in quiet times you can zoom from Fife to the A1 really easily...sadly the bottle necks mentioned above soon mean that it's far from plain sailing at busy times!!

Sherifhall is due to be replaced soon. Bypass will go straight over it I believe.

[RyeSloan]

Sherifhall is due to be replaced soon. Bypass will go straight over it I believe.

Is it...do you have links to the plans?

[RyeSloan]

Sheriffhall is awful, though a lot worse before it was laned and lighted.

If you removed it though you would lose the A7 connection. It's not great but as it is but can you imagine what the Justinlees roundabout would become like?

No you would create a flyover with on and off ramps to the roundabout.

That way the bypass traffic can flow straight across while people can exit to sheriffhall and go to the A7 or whatever from there and vice versa...

Simples [emoji12]

[Mibbes Aye]

No you would create a flyover with on and off ramps to the roundabout.

That way the bypass traffic can flow straight across while people can exit to sheriffhall and go to the A7 or whatever from there and vice versa...

Simples [emoji12]

I hadn't considered the flyover, so you could be right :aok: though I would need to be convinced about the surrounding land. You have the North Esk in close proximity as well as lots of inherently unstable ground on all sides.

If it helped deal with the congestion that now seems to be a regular occurrence westbound between Old Craighall and Sheriffhall then it would be welcome, that seems to have got crazy over recent years and not just at the predictable times.

[Beefster]

Well it could really....although the bypass was clearly built on the cheap it's still serves a critical purpose. Can you imagine all that traffic having to go through the city?

The main problem (apart from no hard shoulder in many places) with the bypass is the roundabouts. Quite why they can't find the money or desire to link it directly to the M8 and remove sheriffhall and link he end of the road directly to the A1 I have no idea....that would significantly improve traffic flow without the need to widen the road (although I think they should do that as well)

The reasonably new infrastructure around the M9 spur and the subsequent linking to the M8 is good and in quiet times you can zoom from Fife to the A1 really easily...sadly the bottle necks mentioned above soon mean that it's far from plain sailing at busy times!!

That bit of merging onto the bypass at the Hermiston Gate roundabout is probably the thing I hate most in the world. And I only have to use it a couple of times a week max.

[RyeSloan]

That bit of merging onto the bypass at the Hermiston Gate roundabout is probably the thing I hate most in the world. And I only have to use it a couple of times a week max.

Hee hee it truly is a woeful piece of road building...sure you love it when the traffic trying to get to the M8 backs up and prevents the traffic coming from the M8 getting round and up to the bypass...true genius linking the nations main motorway to its capitals bypass with a roundabout!

If there was carbuncle awards for road merging that would win it every year for sure!

[SouthsideHarp_Bhoy]

Is it...do you have links to the plans?

No links but it is in the SG's transport infrastructure plans - building a flyover to link the bypass but keeping the jinction for local access i believe.

[The Pointer]

You only need to look at the other end of the M8 to see how to cut a city in half with few advantages, access to the city centre being one.

Sadly Edinburgh is ridiculously anti-car.

[snooky]

The bypass was designed to take the traffic flow that went through the city. Unfortuately they forgot to add into the equation that it oppened up easy access to the Gyle, etc hence the big development there. They also came up with the brilliant idea of forcing people onto the bypass by narrowing and cutting off arteries through the town (eg Niddrie/Craigmillar, Princess St).
What an opportunity they missed when the rail bridge was being constructed at Sheriffhall. Surely they could have done some infrastructure improvements like an underbridge alongside the railway bridge when they had the temporary diversion road in place.
You think it's bad now? With all the east coast house-building going on in the towns & villages (Wallyford, Musselburgh, all the way down to Dunbar) there'll be even more congestion. I don't see any improvement in the main roads planned to accommodate the extra traffic.

Welcome to the City of Gridlock.

[Mibbes Aye]

The bypass was designed to take the traffic flow that went through the city. Unfortuately they forgot to add into the equation that it oppened up easy access to the Gyle, etc hence the big development there. They also came up with the brilliant idea of forcing people onto the bypass by narrowing and cutting off arteries through the town (eg Niddrie/Craigmillar, Princess St).
What an opportunity they missed when the rail bridge was being constructed at Sheriffhall. Surely they could have done some infrastructure improvements like an underbridge alongside the railway bridge when they had the temporary diversion road in place.
You think it's bad now? With all the east coast house-building going on in the towns & villages (Wallyford, Musselburgh, all the way down to Dunbar) there'll be even more congestion. I don't see any improvement in the main roads planned to accommodate the extra traffic.

Welcome to the City of Gridlock.

The trams get a bad press because of how spectacularly bad the build was overseen.

Nevertheless, the original business case was sound, based on 25-29,000 new houses being built in Newhaven/Granton and 250,000 square metres of new office space at Edinburgh Park. The tram directly linked them, via hubs at Waverley and Haymarket. There are arterial routes on public transport to the city centre and its western and eastern fringes that obviously made sense at the time. The original proposal also envisaged Granton being linked to the West End, essentially forming an inner ring road for the tram.

The problem was the credit crunch and a massive slowdown in development, leaving us with what looked nothing simpler than a vanity project.

An additional wider problem is the number of cars in Edinburgh, it's crazy and has got exponentially worse over the last couple of decades. Especially given how good a bus network it's always had.

[RyeSloan]

No links but it is in the SG's transport infrastructure plans - building a flyover to link the bypass but keeping the jinction for local access i believe.

Found it! Cheers.

Seems like it has taken them over 4 years to decide that the option I suggested yesterday after thinking about it for 10 seconds was the best route forward! I should change jobs [emoji23]

Still great to see work is being progressed here and although 'draft orders' are not planned until 2019 (I assume that means final go ahead) and we probably won't see the damn thing for 2-3 years after that its heartening that something will be done about this nonsense!

[stantonhibby]

Couldn’t be any worse than the shambles that is the City Bypass.

Gogar roundabout at the Gyle is beyond a joke from about 4-6 every night during the week.

[Tornadoes70]

The bypass was designed to take the traffic flow that went through the city. Unfortuately they forgot to add into the equation that it oppened up easy access to the Gyle, etc hence the big development there. They also came up with the brilliant idea of forcing people onto the bypass by narrowing and cutting off arteries through the town (eg Niddrie/Craigmillar, Princess St).
What an opportunity they missed when the rail bridge was being constructed at Sheriffhall. Surely they could have done some infrastructure improvements like an underbridge alongside the railway bridge when they had the temporary diversion road in place.
You think it's bad now? With all the east coast house-building going on in the towns & villages (Wallyford, Musselburgh, all the way down to Dunbar) there'll be even more congestion. I don't see any improvement in the main roads planned to accommodate the extra traffic.

Welcome to the City of Gridlock. Niddrie and Craigmillar used to be easy flow two lanes either side until the council narrowed the roads choking it into a gridlock, thankfully I haven't had to travel that road for a number of years now. Most major cities have ring roads connecting all parts of the city to it. Edinburgh has some of the worst transport links for a major city I've ever come across. Its certainly a beautiful city no doubt but its outer link roads leave a lot to be desired.

[Scouse Hibee]

Gogar roundabout at the Gyle is beyond a joke from about 4-6 every night during the week.

Partly down to the erseholes who block it every night rather than wait.

[SouthsideHarp_Bhoy]

You only need to look at the other end of the M8 to see how to cut a city in half with few advantages, access to the city centre being one.

Sadly Edinburgh is ridiculously anti-car.

I hear this a lot - how is Edinburgh anti-car? Its a city that was not designed to handle the car, but the advantages of that far outweigh the disadvantages imo.

[RyeSloan]

I hear this a lot - how is Edinburgh anti-car? Its a city that was not designed to handle the car, but the advantages of that far outweigh the disadvantages imo.

Because the council has for many many years ensured that driving around the city is as painful and as difficult as possible.

This has been done in the name of promoting public transport etc but narrowing roads, adding massive speed bumps to roads you couldn't speed on anyway if you tried, failing to maintain the highways, introducing ludicrous 20mph 'zones' and consistently failing to plan roadworks and road closures so they don't have multiple impacts has done bugger all to encourage people to use the bus (a fast, efficient service does that) but caused no end of grief for any poor sod who has to drive around the city with any frequency.

[snooky]

Because the council has for many many years ensured that driving around the city is as painful and as difficult as possible.

This has been done in the name of promoting public transport etc but narrowing roads, adding massive speed bumps to roads you couldn't speed on anyway if you tried, failing to maintain the highways, introducing ludicrous 20mph 'zones' and consistently failing to plan roadworks and road closures so they don't have multiple impacts has done bugger all to encourage people to use the bus (a fast, efficient service does that) but caused no end of grief for any poor sod who has to drive around the city with any frequency.

I'll second all that, RS ....and you can add the fact that Queen Street (the only road for cars to go through the town centre) is reduced to one lane at the east end. :crazy:
I love walking in Edinburgh but absolutely detest driving in it so, I suppose as far as the Council is concerned, it's "job done".

[Moulin Yarns]

Back to the original topic. As a pupil who was at both the Broughton Secondary schools, we moved to the new (current) site opposite Inverleith Park and Fettes College and none of the windows could open because an elevated section of the ring road was supposed to go past the school. That would be 1971, so the plans for the road were certainly still live at that point.

[lord bunberry]

Because the council has for many many years ensured that driving around the city is as painful and as difficult as possible.

This has been done in the name of promoting public transport etc but narrowing roads, adding massive speed bumps to roads you couldn't speed on anyway if you tried, failing to maintain the highways, introducing ludicrous 20mph 'zones' and consistently failing to plan roadworks and road closures so they don't have multiple impacts has done bugger all to encourage people to use the bus (a fast, efficient service does that) but caused no end of grief for any poor sod who has to drive around the city with any frequency.
I've heard it's about to get much worse as well. Apparently there's plans to ban all vehicles from certain roads for a yet undisclosed number of hours each day.

[grunt]

I've heard it's about to get much worse as well. Apparently there's plans to ban all vehicles from certain roads for a yet undisclosed number of hours each day.Eh? Tell us more please.

[Moulin Yarns]

Eh? Tell us more please.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-41358298

[lord bunberry]

Eh? Tell us more please.
I was watching the news and it said that due to pollution levels in certain parts of the city, it would be necessary to close the roads at certain times during the day.

[grunt]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-41358298


I was watching the news and it said that due to pollution levels in certain parts of the city, it would be necessary to close the roads at certain times during the day.
Thanks both, been away and missed this.

Interesting quote from the BBC article, from the category "What has the EU ever done for us?"
Lothian buses in Edinburgh introduced a new fleet of 30 so-called Euro 6 vehicles to cut down on pollution. Euro 6 is the sixth incarnation of the European Union directive to reduce harmful pollutants from vehicle exhausts.