A720 Sheriffhall Junction Improvement questions: EIR release

Information requested

You asked for:-

“1) How much would to be spent on the flyover at the Sheriffhall roundabout? I'd like this information broken down as much as possible.

2) How much was spent on the glossy brochures from transport scotland titled 'A720 Sheriffhall Roundabout Environmental statement December 2019'?

3) What long term environmental impacts do transport scotland anticipate from building a flyover? I'd like all evidence of all assessments.

4) What assessments have Transport Scotland carried out to evaluate how much traffic increase will result as a consequence of building a flyover?

5) What assessments have been carried out to make sure the perceived congestion problem at Sheriffhall aren't simply moved to Straiton Junction and Gogar junction in the west as well as OldCraighall junction in the east?”

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.

1) The current total anticipated cost of the A720 Sheriffhall Junction Improvement is estimated to be £116m (at 2018 prices, excluding VAT).

The main elements of this cost estimate consist of £86.8m in construction, £9.9m in relation to preparation and site supervision, £3.1m for land acquisition and £16.6m attributable to optimism bias.

2) The glossy brochure from Transport Scotland titled 'A720 Sheriffhall Roundabout Environmental Statement Non-Technical Summary December 2019' is the Non-Technical Summary (NTS) of the Environmental Statement (ES). It is a requirement of the Act(s) that an NTS is published at the same time the ES is released and Transport Scotland have complied with this requirement. The cost of the print-run to produce the NTS for public consumption was £875 (excluding VAT).

Hardcopies of the full ES are available at the charge of £150 per copy or £10 for a DvD. Alternatively it can be viewed at Transport Scotland’s website at the following link:- https://www.transport.gov.scot/projects/a720-sheriffhall-roundabout/

A hardcopy of the ES may also be viewed at one of the three locations referred to in the published ES Notice during the period specified:- https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/3442666

3) The ES referred to in Point 2 to this reply provides detail on the environmental impact assessment process undertaken and on the anticpated long term environmental impacts of the A720 Sheriffhall Roundabout Scheme. Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format.

4) A detailed traffic and economic assessment was undertaken as part of the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) Stage 3 assessment of the scheme.

Detailed traffic surveys undertaken to inform this assessment indicated that the total number of vehicles that passed through Sheriffhall roundabout was 67,500 on average (14-hour weekday period in 2017). By 2024 (which, for assessment purposes, was the assumed year of opening), this is expected to increase by 9% to 73,600 without the improvements and by a further 5% to 77,300 with the improvement in place.

When complete the scheme will allow through traffic on the A720, which accounts for approximately half the traffic at this location, to pass over the junction reducing the conflict between strategic and local traffic.

5) As noted in Point 4 to this reply, as part of the DMRB Stage 3 assessment, a detailed traffic and economic assessment was undertaken to assess the congestion problem at Sheriffhall.

Work is now underway for the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) which will allow the Scottish Government to consider future investment and deliver a transport network fit for the 21st century. The scope of this multi-modal review will extend to the strategic road network, including the A720 Edinburgh City Bypass, along with other transport networks. The review will also consider national infrastructure investment to support active travel, island connectivity, buses and ferries and will be delivered in the lifetime of this Parliament (2021).

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