Dumfries bypass study on the cards

Jan 28 2009 by Craig Robertson, Dumfries Standard Wednesday

ROADS bosses are refusing to give up hope on a Dumfries southern bypass ... despite it being excluded from a £20billion national transport scheme.

The South West of Scotland Transport Partnership (SWESTRANS) is planning to forge ahead with work on a study looking at the need for the route which is seen by many as the missing link around the town and the key to regeneration.

They want to carry out a three-day public consultation exercise in March on the potential for a bypass.

It is part of a Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) on the transport needs for the southern end of the town which started in 2004.

But since then, that area of Dumfries has expanded and flourished in the form of the Crichton campus and the hospital complex while the roads network has struggled to cope.

The most recent addition – the £37million Dumfries and Galloway College – brought with it fresh concerns over the amount of traffic choking up the Bankend Road and St Michael’s Street areas of the town at peak times.

SWESTRANS will meet on Friday to consider the proposal on the public consultation scheduled for three days from March 5 at the council’s Queensberry House offices in the town.

In a report SWESTRANS service manager, John Nelson, said that in the first part of the STAG review “the Dumfries south study was revisited to consider whether a road-based intervention was the only, or best, way forward.

“It was concluded that, given the scale of intervention required and the dispersed nature of demand for travel, the southern bypass remained the best way forward.

“The appraisal demonstrated that a southern bypass would have positive benefits”.

The consultation, which will include a display of southern bypass possibilities, comes in at an estimated cost of £6,000, according to Mr Nelson’s report.

However, the main issue blocking southern bypass hopes is financial backing.

In December, the Scottish Government released its Strategic Transport Projects Review which provided a route map for major rail and road works which are to be implemented over the next 20 years.

But, despite campaigning from local politicians, the southern bypass was not included in the scheme.