Edinburgh roads: Upgrade of notorious Dalmahoy junction on A71 expected to start in autumn

Work on installing traffic lights at a notorious accident blackspot is expected to start in the autumn.

The £1.6 million project to upgrade the Dalmahoy junction on the busy A71 was given the go-ahead in December 2022 after more than 35 years of campaigning by local residents.

A full upgrade of the dangerous Dalmahoy junction on the A71 is expected to start in the autumn after more than 35 years of campaigning by local residents. Picture: Ian Rutherford.

Officials said they had hoped work would start this summer, but there had been a slight hold up due to the death of one of the landowners they are buying land from. They said the scheme was now in the final stages of detailed design and they expected work to begin on site in the autumn and take around four and six months to complete.

There have been several serious accidents at the junction on the busy A71 road which includes the entrance to the Dalmahoy hotel and country club where US president Joe Biden stayed during at year's COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.

Locals first asked for an upgrade of the junction 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 then officials said it had become too costly.

They produced a scaled-down alternative with just a pedestrian crossing, which the transport committee at the time endorsed. But after the council elections in 2022, the new transport committee ordered the proposals to be re-examined and the fully signalised junction was given the go-ahead again.

Transport convener Scott Arthur said: “The current committee Inherited a plan for a pedestrian crossing at the spot, but there was dissatisfaction with that because people felt it was not just a problem for pedestrians and the thought the junction needed to be treated more widely. I’m glad we’re now able to go ahead with the full scheme.”