A7 - A68 - A720
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Ordnance Survey map - Alternative aerial view
Where is it?
Halfway around the A720 Edinburgh City Bypass, where two of the city's radials cross the bypass and each other.
It was nominated by Chris Williams.
What's wrong with it?
Imagine, if you will, the city of Edinburgh. Around its southern fringe lies the A720, otherwise known as the City Bypass, a grade-separated dual carriageway (complete with hard shoulders and motorway-like restrictions) that speeds traffic around the urban area. It's like some kind of dream.
However, largely thanks to this junction, if the A720 is any kind of dream, it's the sort that makes you wake up screaming at three in the morning. It's pretty obvious from the diagram what's wrong with it - it's a roundabout. Traffic chaos day and night is caused by the fact that this junction, in the middle of what is effectively a motorway, is one flyover short of adequacy.
Naturally, traffic engineers have done their best to entertain those stuck in the congestion this roundabout causes by surrounding it with cheery red, amber and green disco lights.
Why is it wrong?
There are two schools of thought on this one, and each is equally plausible. The first is the more optimistic; when the Bypass was designed and built it was thought that the volume of traffic entering or exiting the road here would be a significant proportion (ie, the flows of traffic between the two arms of the A720 would not be heavy enough to warrant grade separation). With the benefit of hindsight (and all the thinking time that a typical Sherriffhall traffic jam permits), it's clear as day that this idea was wrong.
The other, more frightening, answer is that the junction is built on the site of old mine workings, and that this made grade separation impossible. The ground is not stable enough to support a flyover. This is backed up by the fact that the design of the junction does not even leave room for future grade separation. If this reason is true, then the future looks grim for regular users of this junction.
What would be better?
A flyover and a free-flowing A720. Or an underpass. Anything. Please. Quickly.
Right to Reply
Email me with your comments.
Myles McGregor isn't putting up with any excuses:
Sherrifhall Roundabout was built as the "temporary end" of the A720 before it was finally connected to the A1. When the city bypass was eventually joined up, Edinburgh City Council short sightedly refused to entertain a grade seperated junction on the basis of cost, despite this being the only truly workable and sustainable solution.
Indeed, there are abandoned mine workings in the area but as has been proved in many areas of the UK these can be VERY successfully grouted and as a result are perfectly stable and safe.
This is just another of the spectacular failure of Edinburgh's Transport planners over the last 50 years!
As a transportation engineer myself I am dismayed at how many "quick fixes" are made to ensure re-election rather than solve transport issues - this applies at both local and national level.
Ian Phillips brings bad news:
A new junction is about to be added half a mile east of this for the new A68 Dalkeith eastern By-pass. This may either imporve or, more likely, make matters worse here. The A720 queue west bound will have added traffic from the A68 and the local traffic from Dalkeith will still use the existing access to the A720 at Sheriffhall. The new junction does have a flyover - and is just as close to the mine workings at Danderhall. Does this mean the flyover could have been built at Sheriffhall?
Gordon Hatton takes a shortcut:
Our normal approach to the Edinburgh City by-pass is from the south east via A68, or occasionally by A7. We have devised various ways of avoiding this junction, and its lengthy queues, by taking one of the alternative routes out of Dalkeith (which usually has its own traffic jams), cutting across to the A7 roundabout by Dobbies Garden Centre, then joining A720 westbound at the next junction to the west (A772 Gilmerton Road). Surprisingly there are no helpful signs to indicate this route, as even at the A7/A772 junction signs for A720 westbound still take you towards the roundabout and traffic lights. As for the southern approach to the Forth Road Bridge, that needs an Ordnance Survey map and the ability to navigate around back lanes to avoid 90% of the queue!
Matty Ulster didn't enjoy his time at Sherrifhall:
Oh dear, oh dear, this is just the WORST roundabout I've been...erm, around. I thought Sandyknowes near Belfast was awful, but this one just doesn't bear thinking about. It turns a great bypass into a nightmarish crawl...
Tony Baker is stuck: (Apr 08)
In the evenings, traffic is frequently backed up from Sheriffhall for six miles to the M8 roundabout to the west of Edinburgh (in itself a very bad junction). From the south-east, once I have cleared the Black Cat, it is usually my first hold-up for 350 miles. There seems to be no intention to do anything about it.
Older comments are in the comments archive.
With thanks to Thomas Davies for information on this page.
