THE DANGERS facing motorists at the junction have been highlighted by a “near-miss” experienced by Emily Officer from Marykirk as she drove across the dual carriageway this week.

She was taking her husband back to his care home and had another passenger in the back seat.

“I came out of the Marykirk road, crossed the southbound lanes and waited in the central reservation. I was very careful. There appeared to be nothing coming north and that was confirmed by my passenger, so I pulled away.

“I was still in the outside lane when a car came out of the blue and overtook me on the inside lane. It was going far more than 50mph. I completed the crossing but it was frightening.

“A new junction is being created at Lochlands, Forfar where the area is already served by an underpass and a flyover. It doesn’t make sense to continue to ignore the Laurencekirk junction which serves a huge area, including Montrose. The toll bridge at Marykirk was reinforced many years ago in anticipation of coping with the heavy increase in traffic crossing from the coast over to the A90 at Laurencekirk. The junction is a major access on to and exit from the A90. It has been horrendous for many years.”

A Montrose man who uses the junction regularly said the road design was not totally to blame.

“A lot of it is driver error,” he said. “There are peak times when the volume of traffic is heavy, but often when I arrive at the junction it is quiet. Drivers should be more patient.”