A68 Dalkeith Northern Bypass

What's involved?

Five kilometre of high quality single carriageway will be built to allow travellers to bypass Dalkeith between Fordal Mains and the Edinburgh City Bypass.

Project benefits

The need for a bypass has been long recognised and it will bring significant benefits to the residents of Dalkeith by reducing congestion, noise and air pollution associated with the heavily used current route through the town centre.

Status

These details are avaialble from the programme document

Impact on travel

As the scheme is mainly off-line there will be no significant impact on travellers. However, there will be a requirement for traffic management at the tie-ins on the A720 Edinburgh City Bypass and A68 at Fordal Mains.

Traffic management

Delays will be kept to a minimum and traffic management will be in place where the Dalkeith bypass joins the A720, A68 and A6094 Salters Road.

Environmental impact

Dalkeith Bypass, in common with all infrastructure projects, has an impact, but the overwhelming effect will be relief to the town centre of Dalkeith. The published route was judged, in overall terms, to be the least detrimental environmentally. It has the best fit landscape, is least damaging ecologically, does not have severe visual impacts and will not cause excessive disruption during construction. The scheme will bring significant benefits to the residents of Dalkeith by reducing congestion, noise and air pollution associated with the heavily used current route through the town centre. A prime concern throughout route development was the need to minimise any possible adverse impacts on Dalkeith Country Park. The Park is recognised as being the principal area of ecological importance potentially affected by the scheme, by virtue of the designated Listed Wildlife Sites within the Esk and the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) at Dalkeith Oakwood

Proposed route

The proposed route will bypass Dalkeith to the north tying a new junction on the A720 Edinburgh City Bypass east of Sheriffhall Roundabout to the existing A68 at Fordal Mains to the east of Dalkeith. A copy of the location plan is available in pdf format below.

Updated Information

Although an extensive programme of studies led to the choice of the route and the completion of planning consents, two new studies were commissioned in 2005 to look again at the traffic effects and environmental conditions on the line of the route to update earlier work.

The Traffic and Economic Assessment Report and Environmental Mitigation Report for the A68 Dalkeith Northern Bypass are provided in PDF format (1.7 Mb and 2 Mb respectively).

Drawings from the Environmental Mitigation Report are not available for downloading due to their size. However, appendices and drawings from the Environmental Mitigation Report and also further information are available from the contact details shown below.

A copy of the location map is also provided in PDF format (2.3 Mb).

Contact

For more information on this project, please contact -

Major Transport Infrastructure Projects (MTRIPS)
Transport Scotland
Buchanan House
58 Port Dundas Road
Glasgow
G4 0HF

Telephone: 0141 272 7100
Email: info@transport.gov.scot

When was the route published?

The route of the proposed A68 Dalkeith Northern Bypass was established following a Public Local Inquiry held in 1992. The Environmental Assessment was updated in 1996 for the second Public Local Inquiry into the proposal to dual the scheme. In developing the scheme, route options were appraised in relation to their beneficial and adverse environmental impacts, in addition to traffic, economic and engineering considerations.

What environmental assessments have been undertaken?

An Environmental appraisal of route options was undertaken in accordance with the STEAM (Scottish Traffic and Environmental Appraisal Manual) methodology prior to the 1992 Public Local Inquiry. This appraisal satisfied all the requirements of an Environmental Assessment as set out by the prevailing legislation, the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Regulations (1988). In 1996 an updated Environmental Assessment was undertaken in accordance with the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges which replaced the STEAM methodology.