A737 Dalry Bypass scope of works: EIR release

Information requested

The scope of works to the verge and technical reasonings behind such of the A737 Dalry Bypass verge between Blair Road overbridge and the Hillend roundabout. Current TM provisions have been set up since Monday 12th March 2025 for a period of 12 weeks.

As a practicing Civil Engineer working towards Chartership, I am keen to learn whether this relates to the lack of vegetation growth on the reinforced soil nail slope adjacent to Blair Road overbridge. Access to as-built design drawings for such elements prior to reworks would be appreciated in electronic format if possible, please.

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 noted in your request, the A737 Dalry Bypass was closed on March 10 from midnight to 6am to allow lane restrictions to be installed. These lane restrictions are necessary to enable essential remedial works to be undertaken safely.

The essential remedial works will be carried out by the contractor, Farrans Roadbridge Joint Venture (FRJV). These works include earthworks, landscaping, pavement and road markings remedials. These remedial works will be undertaken and supervised by FRJV’s appointed designer Sweco UK Limited. The works will include the remediation of an earthworks slope by replacing the existing material and will include the provision of additional drainage in order to prevent future issues arising.

During this time, the carriageway will be limited to a single lane of traffic in each direction.

With regards to the soil nailed slope, which is not related to the earthworks slope remediation described above, FRJV are to remediate the landscaping on this part of the slope by replacing top soil and hydroseeding the slope, which is intended to improve the appearance of the slope once fully established.

With regards to your request for as-built design drawings, please refer to Annex A, B and C for copies of landscape, earthworks and soil nailing slope details for the section of road adjacent Blair Road Overbridge as requested. Some of this information has been redacted, please refer to regulation details below.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

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EIR 202500458127 - Information released - Annex

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3.3 MB