By Alan Richardson

RUMOURS SWEEPING Highland Perthshire that long-awaited upgrade work at the A9’s Ballinluig junction will finish this week are wide of the mark according to road operators Transport Scotland.

Residents had been speculating that the £15 million project would be complete as early as the weekend or, at the latest, the end of this week.

Even staff working on site have been telling the public cars could be using the new roadway as early as this week, but a spokesman for Transport Scotland told The Courier that, while the work is on course, there is no clear indication yet that the year-long work period will end early.

A Transport Scotland spokesman said, “Information that the work will finish at the weekend is not correct. I can confirm it will not finish in the next week.

“The work has moved into a different phase which will mean removing some of the signage which may be where the confusion has arisen.

“We don’t have a definite finish date yet, but we can say the work is on time and we will put out a notice nearer the time of completion.”

Contractors have been on site at the notorious junction between Dunkeld and Pitlochry since July in a bid to improve conditions on the busy stretch of road.

The scene of several fatal accidents in the last decade, it became the focus of safety campaigners, many of whom want to see the A9 dualled in its entirety from Perth to Inverness amid figures showing it is Scotland’s deadliest road.

Following years of delays and false starts—the project was first mooted in 2002—work got under way 10 months ago and is scheduled to end in July.

The main thrust is to create a grade separated junction which will negate the need for northbound vehicles to make a right turn across the opposite carriageway and into the face of oncoming traffic when exiting or joining the A9 for the A827 Aberfeldy road.

Access will also be improved thanks to 600 metres of new dual carriageway around the junction, which has been subject to speed restrictions and traffic calming since the start of the work period.

It was prompted by the deaths in 2001 of four Israeli holidaymakers after the driver of the car became confused by the junction layout.

Statistics released showed it was one of three fatal accidents at the blackspot since 1997 and one of 11 accidents there in total in that period.

Last month official figures showed the A9 remains Scotland’s “deadliest” road. The latest numbers, for 2006, showed 17 people died in a total of 234 accidents.

In total the death toll on the road was 69 between 2002 and 2006.

As well as saving lives, it has been claimed dualling the length of the road would create 4500 jobs and bring over £1 billion into the Scottish economy.