Transport Scotland Scottish Trunk Road Infrastructure Project Evaluation Evaluation Report for Trunk Road Projects Opened between April 07 and March 09
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to Project Evaluation
The aims of evaluation, as set out in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB), Volume 5, SH 1/97 'Traffic and Economic Assessment of Road Schemes in Scotland', are as follows:
- to satisfy the demands of good management and public accountability by providing the answers to questions about the effects of a new or improved road;
- to identify the strengths and weaknesses in the techniques used for appraising projects, so that confidence in the roads programme is maintained;
- to allow the predictive ability of the traffic or transport models used to be monitored to establish whether any particular form of model is consistently more reliable than others when applied to particular types of projects; and
- to assist in the assessment of compensation under Part 1 of the Land Compensation (Scotland) Act 1973 for depreciation due to the physical factors caused by the use of public works.
The evaluation of trunk road projects is evolving as Transport Scotland improves its process and reporting to reflect the principles of monitoring and evaluation set out in the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG).
STAG advocates evaluation against indicators and targets derived for the Transport Planning Objectives originally set for the project, STAG criteria (Environment, Safety, Economy, Integration and Accessibility & Social Inclusion) and relevant policy directives, the aim of which is to identify:
- whether the project is performing as originally intended;
- whether, and to what extent, it is contributing to established policy directives; and
- whether the implemented project continues to represent value for money.
The Evaluation Report for Trunk Road Projects Opened between April 07 and March 09 presents the evaluations undertaken for projects costing over £5m that were completed and opened to traffic in the 2007/08 and 2008/09 financial years.
The projects evaluated in this report are listed in Table 1.1 and their locations are shown in Figure 1.1.
Table 1.1: Projects Opened Between April 07 and March 09
| Route | Project Name | Standard | Length (km) | Open to Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A75(T) | Barfil to Bettyknowes | WS2+1 | 1.4 | April 08 |
| A75(T) | Newton Stewart | DAL | 0.4 | April 08 |
| A75(T) | Planting End to Drumflower | WS2+1 | 1.0 | April 08 |
| A9(T) | Ballinluig Junction Improvement | Junction Improvement | May 08 | |
| A9(T) | Helmsdale Phase 2 | S2 & CL | 2.4 | August 08 |
| A68(T) | Dalkeith Bypass | S2 & CL | 5.4 | September 08 |
| A876(T) | Clackmannanshire Bridge | WS2+1 | 4.0 | November 08 |
| A77(T) | Haggstone | CL | 1.0 | December 08 |
| A77(T) | Glen App | WS2 | 1.0 | December 08 |
| A76(T) | Glenairlie | WS2+1 | 2.5 | March 09 |
Key:
WS2 Wide Single Carriageway
WS2+1 Wide Single 2+1 Carriageway
S2 Single 2 Lane Carriageway
DAL Differential Acceleration Lane
CL Climbing Lane
Chapter 2 of this report presents the methodology and data sources used in the evaluations of projects that opened between April 07 and March 09. Chapter 3 provides a summary of the evaluations and the key findings are presented in Chapter 4.
Full details of the evaluations for the projects are contained in Appendix A.
Figure 1.1 Locations of Projects Evaluated
