CCC NEWS

TRANSPORT Minister Tavish Scott has at last announced his preferred route for the AWPR. While it is a strange choice, providing relatively little traffic relief for the key Anderson Drive corridor despite its huge cost and causing massive environmental damage to Milltimber, it would have significant benefits for Culter. We would have greatly improved access to the north, east and south, and lorries would no longer have to use Malcolm Road and pass through the village to bypass Aberdeen.

CCC was concerned, however, about issues such as road junctions, so two senior engineers from the AWPR team, Graham Edmond and Derick Murray, met members of CCC in the Pop-in. Their provisional plan showed the road crossing the River Dee on a new bridge just downstream from Maryculter Bridge. Climbing past Camphill Estate, it would go under North Deeside Road (NDR), through the International School, then over the east flank of Beans Hill.

Because of the difficulty of making a junction at NDR, it is proposed to extend Milltimber Brae (B979) northward about ½  km beyond its present junction. Traffic from both the North and South Deeside Roads would use this link to join the AWPR at a grade-separated junction near Culter House Road.

We had reservations about this proposal, particularly because the new crossroads on the NDR could cause congestion and delay. An alternative, which will therefore be considered by the engineers, is a grade­-separated junction immediately north of the new bridge. We have asked to be kept informed as the design develops.

Doug Stewart Vice-Chair