Edinburgh roads: Frustration as Dalmahoy junction upgrade still waiting to start two years after approval
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They were told last spring that the £1.6 million project to upgrade the Dalmahoy junction on the busy A71 should get under way in the autumn, but still nothing has happened.
Purchase of the last piece of land needed for the upgrade was approved by councillors in September, but the legal process has not yet been completed.


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Hide AdBen Bright, one of the residents pressing for the project to begin, said: "I don't understand why it's held up."
There have been several serious accidents at the junction, which includes the entrance to the Dalmahoy hotel and country club where US president Joe Biden stayed during the 2023 COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
Locals first asked for an upgrade as long ago as 1986. A council report in 2015 said a fully signalised junction was the only practical option to improve safety and the council agreed to the upgrade, but the project was delayed and the cost rose. A scaled-down alternative with just a pedestrian crossing, was approved in 2021.
But after the council elections in 2022, the new transport committee, chaired by Scott Arthur, ordered the proposals to be re-examined and the fully signalised junction was given the go-ahead again in December that year.
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Hide AdThe project required small areas of land to be bought from three different owners, but one of the landowners died and that caused a delay, which now seems to be persisting.
Mr Bright says everyone is getting frustrated. He said: "After a bad accident in August 2023 we were told that Councillor Arthur and the transport committee had placed a priority on obtaining the land for the junction work.
“Surprisingly, land was obtained very quickly from two of the three land-owners involved. Sadly the third passed away in early 2024 before signing the paperwork. We were told that out of respect for the family, they would wait before approaching them with more paperwork.
"For years residents were told that it was the landowners that were holding up the project, except I spoke with two of the three owners and they told me that they had never been approached about the land being acquired by the council. So why did the committee continue to say that officers had informed them that the issue was the landowners?
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Hide Ad"It just seems there's not a lot of transparency going on here and any time there's an issue we just get told it's the landowners."
Transport convener Stephen Jenkinson - who also represents the ward which includes Dalmahoy - said he was eager to see the project progress and a safe signalised junction installed.
He said: "I know the designs are complete and the plans are complete and the slow progress is in relation to the land that's required to deliver the project.
"The reason why there are no spades in the ground, which is leading to frustration in the local community and frustration on my part too, is that progress is tied up in a complex estate settlement. But this is a dangerous junction and it needs to be sorted.”
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