Drew Hendry

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By Steven McKenzieBBC Scotland Highlands and Islands reporter

The Scottish Government has said a target to dual remaining sections of single-carriageway between Inverness and Perth by 2025 will be missed.

Since The Project was launched in 2011 a total of About 11 miles (18km) have been upgraded, leaving 80 miles (123km) still to be done.

The Wheels coming off the completion Date is the latest twist in The Story of Scotland's longest road.

What is the A9?

It is often described as The Spine of the Scottish road network running About 230 miles (370 km) from Scrabster, near Thurso on the north Highland coast, to near Dunblane.

According to Transport Scotland , More Than 65,000 people travel along the Inverness to Perth section Every Day alone, and the value of The Goods carried on just this stretch is estimated to be £19bn annually.

The A9 passes through some dramatic upland landscapes, with sections of it following the lines of old military roads dating back to the 18Th Century .

Where the A9 traverses mountain passes it reaches its highest points - 462m (1,516ft) above Sea Level at the Drumochter Summit, 25 miles (40km) north of Pitlochry, and 401m (1,315ft) at the Slochd Summit, 20 miles (32km) south of Inverness.

North of Inverness, The Road winds its way through the Black Isle , Easter Ross and along the Caithness and Sutherland coasts.

The First major revamps of the A9 Date to the 1970s and 1980s, and included the construction of major road bridges and bypasses of More Than a dozen towns and villages.

But most of The Road has remained single carriageway, and The Journey time to travel the whole length of the A9 - Without any breaks or Delays -

Why do people dread driving it?

Few people who make regular trips on the A9 would admit to Looking Forward to making their journeys on it, and many will be familiar with The Words " Take Care on that road" from friends and family.

Journeys of the A9 are frequently long, raising The Risk of fatigue, and it is busy.

The Inverness-Perth stretch carries More Than 40,000 vehicles A Day - About 12 million per year,

The statistics show traffic levels can be 50% higher in summer than winter due to high volumes of tourist and leisure-related traffic.

Also, depending on The Time of year and location, goods vehicles including large articulated lorries can account for up to 40% of total daily traffic.

In winter, there are the obvious challenges of snow and ice making driving conditions difficult.

Safety campaigners have blamed The Mix of single and dual carriageway for causing confusion and leading to accidents.

Then there are concerns around driver behaviour.

According to the A9 Safety Group, an organisation involving the Scottish Government , police and Road Safety Scotland, More Than 40% of fatal accidents on single carriageway sections of the A9 between 2008 and 2012 involved overtaking manoeuvres.

The Group also said excessive speeding had been a problem on the A9.

How many fatal accidents have there been?

Last Year , The Number of people killed in crashes between Inverness and Perth rose to its highest level in 20 years.

Thirteen people died in eight fatal accidents.

The Casualties included a two-year-old boy and his grandparents at the Slochd, south of Inverness, In July .

In August, three members of A Family visiting Scotland from the US were killed at Ralia, also in the Highlands.

There were fatal accidents at Dunkeld and near Bankfoot in Perthshire.

Along the full length of The Road there were a total of 17 fatalities, including the death of A Man and A Woman in Caithness.

This Was the highest number for the entire road since 2009, according to Police Scotland data.

The tragic toll sparked renewed calls from campaigners and politicians for the Scottish Government to reaffirm its commitment to complete dualling between Inverness and Perth by 2025.

What is being done to improve safety?

In October 2014, a network of average speed cameras was introduced in an effort to reduce casualty numbers while work continued on the dualling programme.

The Number of fatalities dropped, before rising again Last Year .

In December, the Scottish Government announced it was committed to spending About £5m in extra road safety measures for the A9 in The Years up to 2025.

At The Time it said it was already delivering £95,000-worth of safety schemes over The Next four months between Inverness and Perth, including enhanced signs and road markings at key locations.

It said an additional £600,000 of work and campaigns would also be delivered by this April, focused on the same stretch of road.

This would include enhanced road markings, illuminated road studs and improvements to highlight single carriageways and where they become dualled sections.

Signs with safety messages would also be deployed along the route.

The A9 Safety Group has also run campaigns on overtaking.

A driver fatigue campaign is to be launched on 13 February and, for foreign drivers, a drive on The Left initiative is to be held over Easter.

What is the Inverness-Perth dualling project?

There have been calls for this stretch to be dualled for years due to its strategic importance connecting the Highland capital with central Scotland, and also because of The Number of accidents.

In 2008, the Scottish Government said improving The Road .

On 6 December 2011, the then infrastructure and capital investment secretary Alex Neil launched a new investment plan which included a commitment to dual the A9 between Inverness and Perth by 2025.

Mr Neil said at The Time The Road project was.

The Scottish Government said the A9 Dualling Programme was designed to deliver Economic Growth " through improvement to journey times, reliability, road safety and driver stress".

Construction on The First section, the £35m 4. 6-mile (7. 5km) Kincraig to Dalraddy stretch, started in 2015 and completed and opened in 2017.

The Second - and only other section to be finished to Date - was the Luncarty to Pass of Birnam project, which cost £96m and involved six miles (9km) of dual carriageway. Construction started in 2019 and it opened to traffic in 2021.

Nine sections remain to be built.

There are no plans to dual the A9 north of Inverness.

The A9 is single carriageway for 104 miles (167km) from the Tore Roundabout on the Black Isle to Scrabster.

Why will the 2025 target be missed?

The Scottish Government has long acknowledged transforming the Inverness to Perth stretch would be challenging, describing it As One of the biggest infrastructure projects in Scottish history.

Even before the excavators can move in, there is a huge amount of planning, public consultation, negotiations on The Purchase of land and statutory process to be worked through.

Some of the terrain poses Civil Engineering challenges. The section at the Slochd involves an area of rocky hills and deep gullies.

And the government has come up against opposition to parts of The Project ,

But on Wednesday, Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth told MSPs that meeting the 2025 target was now.

She Said The Project had been hit by Delays , highlighting inflationary pressures on the construction industry caused by the impact of the Covid pandemic, Brexit and The War in Ukraine.

Costs of the overall project have gone up since the £3bn estimate calculated in 2008. A new cost has still to be confirmed.

A major sticking point for progress is the six-mile (9km) section between Tomatin and Moy.

Ms Gilruth said the government had been disappointed to receive just one bid for this stretch, and at a price significantly higher than expected. The Contract is to be put back out to tender.

The Transport minister said the Scottish Government 's commitment to finishing dualling the A9 was " absolute".

How have people reacted?

There has been anger and frustration from The Public , business leaders and politicians.

SNP and opposition MSPs expressed criticism and concerns following Ms Gilruth's statement.

Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said communities had been waiting More Than a decade for the government to fulfil its commitment.

And he warned that people would continue to die on the A9 until The Road was made safer.

Scottish Labour MSP Rhoda Grant said missing The Target was a " total betrayal to the Highlands".

SNP MSP Fergus Ewing said The News would be met with " shock, incredulity and anger".

Later, on Wednesday, Mr Ewing told BBC Radio Scotland's he had campaigned for 33 years for improvements to The Road .

He Said : " We were making progress but This Week we went backward with the cancellation of the section from Tomatin to Moy, and no timetable to replace the original deadline of 2025. This is just not good enough.

" I Am pretty angry About all of this, mirroring The Anger felt by hundreds of thousands of people in Scotland. "

He added: " I was appalled yesterday there was no apology. "

The MSP has called for a public inquiry into The Delay .

Highland-based safety campaigner Laura Hansler, who lives near the A9, said had been left angry and upset.

She Said : " I have been close to tears. I feel physically sick because my thoughts are closely with those who have lost loved ones on the A9. "

Jo De Silva, chairwoman of Visit Inverness Loch Ness , said there could be an economic impact.

She Said : " We rely so heavily up here on tourists and it is such an important road.

" There can be few cities across the UK that don't have a decent road. "

Drew Hendry , SNP MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, has called for understanding of the reasons for The Delay .

He tweeted: " I don't believe anyone thought that the A9 dualling could have been completed by 2025 against the background of a Brexit, imposed upon us, and the pandemic.

" It is, however, important that this project continues as an absolute commitment. "

At First Minister 's questions at Holyrood on Wednesday, Nicola Sturgeon said the Scottish Government was firmly committed to completing the dualling project.

The FM pointed out that was a £3bn investment and road users were already benefiting from some stretches that are already dualled.

What next?

The Scottish Government has asked its agency Transport Scotland to urgently consider a range of ways to efficiently dual The Remaining sections.

Ms Gilruth said she expected to have that advice this autumn and she would then update parliament on a renewed timescale for completion.

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Source of news: bbc.com