The Scottish Government intends to invest approximately £5million in additional road safety measures for the A9 between now and 2025.
Alongside the three existing schemes which are scheduled for delivery including improves signage and road markings across the A9 Ballinluig southbound and additional £600,000 of works will be delivered by April 2023.
Minister for Transport Jenny Gilruth said: “My sympathies are with everyone who has lost a loved one on Scotland’s roads and specifically on the A9 in recent months. One life lost on Scotland’s roads is one too many and as a Government it is imperative we respond the devastating increase in fatalities on the A9 in recent months.
“This funding will provide a package of targeted measures, including road improvements and marketing for delivery between now and 2025. As an immediate intervention by April 2023 over £600,000 will be invested to improve road safety across the A9.
“As I’ve previously outlined in Parliament, the Scottish Government is firmly committed to completing the dualling of the A9 between Perth and Inverness. We have already invested over £430 million to date delivering the dualling programme.
“Work is continuing across the A9, with road users already benefiting from the dualled stretch between Kincraig and Dalraddy and between Luncarty and the Pass of Birnam, which opened in September 2017 and August 2021 respectively.
“We will continue our work to finalise the short term interventions for the A9 into the next financial year and beyond, with an intended programme of work valued at £5 million.
“I’m grateful to all partners, and particularly Police Scotland and BEAR Scotland, for their professionalism in responding to these recent incidents and their continued efforts to keep road users safe.”
The works which be delivered by April focus on the A9 between Perth and Inverness and include enhanced road markings, illuminated road studs and improvements to highlight single carriageways and the transitions at dualled sections, with variable message signs also being deployed along the route.
For 2023/24 and 2024/25 the scope and extent of the works will expand across the route, coupled with targeted marketing campaigns.
The improvements have been welcome by Perth and North Perthshire MSPs John Swinney and MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife Murdo Fraser.
Mr Swinney said: “I am pleased that significant steps are being taken to enhance the safety of the A9 and ensure that drivers are aware of the road conditions.
“The Scottish Government’s commitment to dualling the A9 will ultimately improve safety for all road users, and we remain fully committed to completing this project. Indeed, we have invested over £430m thus far and drivers within my constituency are already seeing the benefits of the dualling project between Luncarty and the Pass of Birnam.
“However, it is right that we take steps to address the concerns of drivers and local residents, and that we do all that we can to make the road as safe as possible in the interim. To that end, I am sure that this investment will be welcomed by both local residents and drivers alike.”
While Mr Fraser said: “I fully welcome the range of measures announced by the SNP Government, particularly the move to better educate tourists and foreign motorists on driving on Scotland’s roads, and improve signage. This follows on a meeting which I and a number of other MSPs had with the Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth, her officials, and the police, and I am pleased that some of the improvements we suggested are being taken forward.
“However, we still need the complete dualling of the A9 between Perth to Inverness as all the fatalities that have taken place this year have been on single-stretch carriageways of the road.
“These horrendous accidents which have left families and friends grieving, highlight the importance of dualling the A9. I have been a long-term campaigner for dualling of the road and I know that local residents whose properties lie adjacent to the A9, and road safety campaigners are desperate for the road to be completely dualled.”
The latest information on the A9 Dualling can be found at https://www.transport.gov.scot/projects/a9-dualling-perth-to-inverness/