Berryden Road / Hutcheon Street Junction
Background The Council agreed in principle, in October 2004, that pedestrianisation of Union Street between Market Street and Bridge Street is an urgent priority, but should only be carried out after traffic management and infrastructure measures had been introduced to ensure efficient traffic distribution around the city centre.One area identified for improvements was the Berryden Road/Skene Square corridor and officials were instructed to appraise options for the Berryden Road/Hutcheon Street junction and conduct a public consultation before reporting back to Committee.
Previous Public Consultation on Options for the Junction
The assessment to identify a range of junction improvements on this congested part of the network was completed and a public consultation on options for the Berryden Road/Hutcheon Street junction held in February 2005.
The options were then presented to the Environment & Infrastructure Committee in May 2005 along with the comments from the community, local Councillor and key stakeholder groups. The linked traffic signal layout was recommended to Committee as the preferred option.
The Convenor of the Environment & Infrastructure Committee "considered that whilst to do nothing at the junction was not an option, he was not of a mind to approve any of the new options within the report". The Committee resolved to request the Corporate Director for Environment & Infrastructure to review all the proposals in the light of what had been said by deputations and Councillor Stewart and to report back on smaller-scale solutions at Berryden Road/Hutcheon Street that would be less destructive and less extensive.
Workshop
A Community Workshop is therefore being arranged to enable the local community and other interested parties to develop small scale solutions to improve the junction. Any improvements will be required to accommodate not only existing and future traffic growth levels efficiently, but also the traffic displaced by the pedestrianisation of Union Street and 'bus/taxi only' lanes on surrounding streets. This must however be achieved whilst also minimising impact and taking into account the needs of pedestrians, cyclists and other road users. The workshops are planned for 6.45pm - 9pm on Wednesday 31st August and Tuesday 6th September at Skene Square School.
As spaces on the workshops are limited, people are being asked to register their place in advance.
Register you place at a workshop:
You can register your place at a workshop by telephoning: (01224) 523441
Please state which of the workshops and the number of people from your household/organisation that would be interested in attending, so that resources can be allocated accordingly. Confirmation of placing will be sent to anyone indicating that they can attend either workshop.
Next Stages
Possible solutions resulting from the workshops will be designed in accordance with national guidance on road design and then tested on the City Centre Paramics traffic simulation model to see if they can work efficiently without creating further congestion and delay both at this junction and on other parts of the network. The results will then be fed back to workshop attendees and reported to the Environment & Infrastructure Committee.
