Plans have been lodged to make major changes to the Inshes roundabout in Inverness.
The junction’s wacky road markings and six exits have made it well-known in the city for all the wrong reasons.
But it is hoped that a new layout will reduce congestion and cut journey times.
According to planning papers recently lodged by Highland Council, work will start at some point in 2024.
Once it is done, only four exits of the roundabout will remain and traffic lights will be installed.
There will also be three new entrances built away from the roundabout for Police Scotland’s Highlands and Islands headquarters, Drumossie Avenue and Inshes Retail Park.
Why is the Inshes roundabout such a problem?
The causes of frustration at this junction are pretty clear.
It’s a six-pronged roundabout sandwiched between the city’s main hospital, its main trunk road and a major retail park.
On the other three sides there is a large housing estate, and roads leading to two of the fastest growing areas in Scotland.
Around 13,000 people work on the junction’s doorstep.
The council ran a public consultation between June and October 2021 to determine the best way forward.
That consultation helped scrap an unpopular link through the Drakies estate that local residents feared would create a rat run.
When the new plan was put before councillors at the city of Inverness area committee in November 2021, there were still a lot of concerns.
But with no better option on the table, a majority of them decided to push forward.
Will the proposed changes fix things?
The difficulty with the proposal is that it is no magic wand.
The council’s planning department have said so themselves.
Principal engineer Gary Smith summed up the situation before the public consultation opened in May 2021.
He said: “The work that we are doing at Inshes roundabout will not solve congestion in Inverness or congestion through Inshes roundabout.
“Inshes roundabout will continue to be busy as long as people continue to use cars.
“What the work will do is make journey time and journey reliability much better and it will control the flow of traffic much better through the Inshes junction.”
Those words are still a little alarming. But it does make sense to keep things realistic.
After all, without a magic money tree to bulldoze the entire junction and start over from scratch, a compromise is the best we can hope for.
What happens next?
This planning application will make its way through the council’s system and given its profile, it seems very likely it will be discussed publicly again.
The junction will be put under the spotlight again as potential rival bids for development nearby take shape.
The major A9-A96 link road that will eventually connect Inshes with Smithton will also have an effect.
But at the moment it is anyone’s guess whether that will improve the situation or not.
One interesting point from the planning papers is the mention of how transport policy has changed in recent years.
The pandemic caused a quicker shift towards sustainable transport.
As a result, the council’s transport policies will now have a greater focus on walking, cycling and public transport.
The problems we’ve seen at Inshes roundabout would certainly ease if more people left the car at home.
But unless we see a rapid improvement in public transport infrastructure, it feels like we’re a long way from that solution.
Once work begins next year, the council says it will take around 14 months to complete.
Conversation