Road safety measures to be carried out on A90 following concerns

A number of measures are to be carried out to improve safety on a major north-east road in the next year.

North-east MSP Liam Kerr raised concerns about improvements on the A90, following a number of serious crashes on the road in the past few years.

At Holyrood he raised the point of safety worries, particularly at junctions and crossovers on the road, and asked what new measures were being proposed by the Scottish Government to tackle this.

Michael Matheson, cabinet secretary for transport, infrastructure and connectivity in Scotland, said: “Transport Scotland is working with road safety partners to investigate a number of locations on the A90 that have been identified through the annual road safety screening process and engagement with local communities and elected members.

“That builds on programmed road safety plans which includes the grade separation project at Laurencekirk.

“In addition, throughout 2020-21, this government will invest £4.65 million in targeted safety camera activity as we strive to deliver Scotland’s road safety vision of a future where no one is killed on the road and the injury rate is much reduced.”

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Mr Kerr had also raised a concern about the effectiveness of average speed cameras, based on the number of serious crashes registered since they were installed between Stonehaven and Dundee. Mr Matheson said: “The statistics on an issue like this should be looked at over a three-year period and we have not completed that three-year period.

“Therefore it would be misguided – and potentially misleading – to jump to that conclusion about the impact of the average speed cameras.”

He added: “That said, a range of investigation works are under way, including on the A90, and some actions will potentially be programmed for later this year.

“In some of the current investigations, consideration is being given to whether the interventions are appropriate; in others, consideration is being given to whether additional assessment is required to determine whether more interventions are needed.”