Information relating to the restricted height of the Old Mill Road overbridge: EIR release

Information requested

1. Has a risk assessment ever been carried out regarding the restricted height of the bridge over the emergency bypass lane and if so what were the findings?

2. Have any parties or bodies expressed concerns that the bridge does not carry a height warning and if so what action was taken?

3. Are there any plans to put a height restriction marking on this bridge?

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. Scottish Roads Partnership (SRP) is responsible for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of this section of the M8 M73 M74 Motorway Improvements Project on behalf of Transport Scotland. SRP has confirmed that it has not undertaken a risk assessment in relation to the headroom over the emergency access route, because the lane was for the sole use of emergency vehicles.
2. Transport Scotland received communication from SRP on 9 April 2018 in relation to the headroom over the emergency access route, which confirmed that SRP was investigating this matter. No works were undertaken following this communication, however SRP has confirmed that its investigations are still ongoing.
3. SRP has confirmed that it has no plans to install height restriction signage at this time however, it has advised that it is investigating additional restriction signage at this location.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.