Where is it?
Halfway around the A720 Edinburgh City Bypass, where two of the city's radials cross the bypass and each other.
It was nominated by Chris Williams.
What's wrong with it?
Imagine, if you will, the city of Edinburgh. Around its southern fringe lies the A720, otherwise known as the City Bypass, a grade-separated dual carriageway (complete with hard shoulders and motorway-like restrictions) that speeds traffic around the urban area. It's like some kind of dream.
However, largely thanks to this junction, if the A720 is any kind of dream, it's the sort that makes you wake up screaming at three in the morning. It's pretty obvious from the diagram what's wrong with it — it's a roundabout. Traffic chaos day and night is caused by the fact that this junction, in the middle of what is effectively a motorway, is one flyover short of adequacy.
Naturally, traffic engineers have done their best to entertain those stuck in the congestion this roundabout causes by surrounding it with cheery red, amber and green disco lights.
Why is it wrong?
There are two schools of thought on this one, and each is equally plausible. The first is the more optimistic; when the Bypass was designed and built it was thought that the volume of traffic entering or exiting the road here would be a significant proportion (ie, the flows of traffic between the two arms of the A720 would not be heavy enough to warrant grade separation). With the benefit of hindsight (and all the thinking time that a typical Sherriffhall traffic jam permits), it's clear as day that this idea was wrong.
The other, more frightening, answer is that the junction is built on the site of old mine workings, and that this made grade separation impossible. The ground is not stable enough to support a flyover. This is backed up by the fact that the design of the junction does not even leave room for future grade separation. If this reason is true, then the future looks grim for regular users of this junction.
What would be better?
A flyover and a free-flowing A720. Or an underpass. Anything. Please. Quickly.
Right to reply
3 options now being considered by Transport Scotland. 2 dumbbell layouts and a grade separated roundabout. Details on Transport Scotland website.
Improvements to the junction announced as part of the SE Scotland City Deal - quoting costs of over £100 million (which seems a bit excessive to me!)
Doesn't mean anything imminent though - work not likely to begin for at least 18 months.
I was on the local Community Council which covers the Sherifhall Roundabout, when we got a presentation from relevant authorities as what the junction at Sherifhal would look like, we were told it would be a 3lane carriageway the full length of the bypass. Can you imagine how we felt when we realised it was going to be 2 lane. When they decided to purchase properties which should have been purchased to allow 3 lanes they decided for economic reasons to purchase enough for a 2lane carriageway and we now know the consequences (penny pinching comes to mind) but who are we to complain we are only the road users. It begs the question what kind of brain do the designers of roads have. Do the powers that be use this monstrosity of a badly designed that they have devised for our capital city, if so they should be ashamed of themselves when you see what the width of the road should have been, not what we got. It has already cost a fortune to get the roundabout updated to what it is now (typical false economy) think how much cheaper if they had done the job right in the first place.
EXACTLY the same as when they made part of the M5 two lanes instead of at least three and EVERYONE - Police, Public, AA etc all said it would be ridiculous to do that. Sure enough, just a few years later the still quite new bridges had to be knocked down (or the hard shoulder was used). 'False economy' is certainly correct. The British are fantastic at it.
Local press suggests that the whole improvement may be ditched given the budget deal with the Green Party. The money is to be used to invest in public transport.
The obvious simple solution is to build a through road for the A720 to make it into a hamburger roundabout. That would help a fair bit without needing to spend much money.
Hi all,
Doing some research on the sheriffhall roundabout,
this is what the final draft is to improve it
https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/46549/a720-sheriffhall-roundabout-…
seems like they've been looking at solutions for a while and the phrase "penny pinching" is indeed correct.
I read about the miner workings, but it is extremely difficult to assess it and the money to build onto it is probably why they decided the bridge, or nobody wanted to hold responsibility for it if it collapsed. (If in doubt blame Thatcher for mine closures right?)
I'm starting a highway design grad. job this year, so I'll try my best to satisfy the comment sections,
but my final advice is, try to maximise public transport, everyone hates it we know, but the population keeps growing and there isn't enough materials/labour/money (cheers Brexit) to satisfy the bulging capacity of cities.
Please give me comments on anything transport related so I can learn from it and try and give you's my best outcome.
Try and be open minded with comments as well, nothing can be 100%
Yet as soon as big public transport schemes like HS2 start construction, it is "a complete waste of money" ! Yet all Europe has already built their HS lines, we are the bumkins !
People are constantly whinging on about the queues of which they're a part, and the fact roads are too unsafe to cycle on, without making the connection that if they were to cycle, there'd be one fewer two ton box on the road (aside from disabled folk and those that have genuine need, of course). We can't keep widening roads and there's no sensible way of widening many roads anyway. Though existing space can be used far more efficiently than it is.
Public transport is another answer but it must be just that - public. Ran for the people so they can afford it, convenient enough so they can use it, and enough of a benefit so they can choose it over driving.
The often-quoted journey time savings on HS2 are actually only a small benefit - but what it will also do is remove most of the high speed trains from the existing network, meaning that what's left can close up and become much more efficient, which benefits the entire country.
Waste of money? They're not spending enough in my view.
Is there any reason why this roundabout hasn't been enlarged and/or hamburgered yet? (and while we're at it, had the A6106 not directly linking to it).
That might maximize traffic flow if a flat junction is the only possibility.