Region's roads have room for "significant" improvements

Oct 10 2008 by Doug Archibald, Dumfries Standard Friday

“SIGNIFICANT room for improvement” sums up the quality of the trunk road infrastructure across the region.

Although there has been major investment in recent years, the Regional Transport Strategy highlights the poor overall quality of the system.

It points out: “An examination of casualties by road reveals that, during the three-year period 2004 to 2006, 40 per cent of all road traffic crash casualties within Dumfries and Galloway occurred on trunk roads.

“Although there has been significant investment in many routes over recent years, there remains significant room for improvement in the overall quality of service offered by the trunk road network, especially compared to competing locations.”

One of the main aims of the RTS is to enhance the existing level of transport provision. It dubs road transport in the region “a complex mixture of internal connections and major through corridors2”.

Emphasising the importance of a good trunk road network to ensure effective distribution of goods and services to help maintain Dumfries and Galloway’s position as an attractive location for companies to invest and create jobs, SWestrans vows to “encourage” the Scottish government to continue investment in the network.

The main focus is the “provision of increased lengths of dual carriageway, dedicated overtaking opportunities and other improvement targeted at improved safety and reliability”.