A new section of the £745m Aberdeen bypass project is due to open this week, providing a continuous 19km dual carriageway – around a third of the new road.
The 12km Balmedie to Tipperty section of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Road/Balmedie to Tipperty (AWPR/B-T) project will fully open to traffic on Wednesday morning (August 15).
The new section represents around a fifth of the entire AWPR/B-T project and includes three new junctions and 9km of new dual carriageway between Balmedie and Bridgend, as well as 3km of improvements to the existing dual carriageway between Blackdog and Balmedie.
Michael Matheson, the Scottish Government’s cabinet secretary for transport, infrastructure and connectivity, said that following the recent opening of the 7km section of the AWPR between Parkhill and Blackdog, road users would now have a dual carriageway from Parkhill to South Ellon roundabout.
In total, this represents approximately a third of the 58 km new road.
Mr Matheson said: ‘We said we would open new sections of road as soon as they were ready for traffic and we are delivering on that commitment.
‘Every day tens of thousands of drivers will now begin to reap the benefits of this section of new road, which was originally a separate project to the AWPR, through enhanced safety, reduced congestion, improved journey time reliability, and safer access to local areas and the wider public network.
‘The full benefits of this huge project will be realised when the AWPR/B-T opens in late Autumn 2018. Our investment in this project is expected to bring in an additional £6bn to the north-east economy and create around 14,000 jobs over the next 30 years.’
