The A9 between Perth and Inverness would be widened to fourteen lanes under proposals published this week, in what officials have described as a “generational response” to seasonal traffic and a projected doubling of the Highland population by 2040.
The scheme, provisionally titled the Highland Superhighway, allocates the lanes as follows: four general purpose lanes in each direction, one freight lane in each direction, one lane in each direction reserved for vehicles travelling below 40mph, and two further lanes described in the documentation as being for “drivers towing something for the first time”.
The estimated cost is £340bn. The original commitment to dual the same road has not been completed.
The strath problem
Engineers acknowledge one complication. At several points between Blair Atholl and Newtonmore, the proposed carriageway is wider than the strath it runs through.
The published solution is to widen the strath.
Documentation confirms that approximately eleven kilometres of hillside would be removed on the eastern side, and that the River Tay would be relocated between nine and fourteen metres west of its current course. A spokesperson stressed the river would “retain its existing character”.
“We were asked to design a road that could absorb any future demand. Any future demand is a very large number. This is what that number looks like when you draw it.”
A design engineer on the feasibility team
What it replaces
The current road is, in long stretches, single carriageway with intermittent overtaking sections. Casualty rates on those sections are the reason dualling was proposed in the first place, and nobody involved disputes that something needs to happen.
What is disputed is whether the something is fourteen lanes.
The Highland Superhighway in numbers
- 14 lanes, of which 2 are for vehicles doing under 40mph
- 80 miles, Perth to Inverness
- £340bn estimated cost, before the river
- Peak design capacity: 640,000 vehicles per day
- Current average daily traffic at Dalwhinnie: around 12,000
- Sections of the original dualling completed: 2 of 11
Objections
Hauliers have welcomed the freight lanes and questioned everything else. Community councils along the route have asked what happens at the Inverness end, where fourteen lanes would arrive at a roundabout.
Officials confirmed this is “a live workstream”.
The consultation runs until November. A second document, covering what happens to the fourteen lanes when they reach the existing single carriageway of the A96, has not yet been published.
