M80 slip road safey concern: EIR release

Information requested

You asked  ‘On my commute home this evening there was yet another collision on the overhead part of the Hornshill Junction of the M80. There have been a large number of accidents at the same part of this overhead roundabout which have included fatalities. Given test these are happening between the M80 off ramp and the road to Stepps (A806) has any analysis been carried out as to what is causing these?? As someone who uses this road daily there is an inherent design flaw in the roundabout. When coming off the M80 (heading towards Glasgow) and selecting the left hand lane at the Give Way it is very difficult to see traffic approaching from the left which makes it difficult to safely join the flow of traffic. I trust that Transport Scotland would be concerned at the number of accidents at this junction and I would be grateful for any and all information which relates to your organisations attempts to understand the issues and what solutions are (or have been) considered?’

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations.  We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA. 

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’.  Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.  We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes.  This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

As part of the M80 Design Build Finance Operate (DBFO) contract, the Concessionaire, HMG, produce an annual road safety review report in relation to accidents on this route with recommendations for further investigation as required.

As part of this process a study recommended that traffic signals will be installed on the northbound off slip at Junction 3 and these are programmed to be operational by the end of this financial year.

It should also be noted that the M80 DBFO only maintains the slip roads from the M80 motorway at this location. The A806 which circumnavigates the roundabout is a local authority road, North Lanarkshire Council, who can be contacted at https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=28129. 

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