ROAD chiefs spent £5.6m "improving" a crash-free stretch of dual carriageway and created an accident blackspot, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.
Fifty-three people have been injured – two of them seriously – since a section of the Edinburgh City Bypass was resurfaced in 1999. Before the work, no accidents had been recorded.
Traffic chiefs say the surface was applied during bad weather and
that could be the reason why the 850-metre section eastbound near the Dreghorn junction has become a blackspot.
Six other sections of road in the south-east of Scotland – including two motorway stretches – are either under investigation or about to be examined amid similar fears they pose an accident risk, and many more across Scotland could be affected.
Road bosses have suspected problems at Dreghorn since August 2005, and in 2006 tried unsuccessfully to remedy drainage problems on the stretch. But at no point have drivers been warned about the potential risk.
Last night, a leading lawyer warned that road chiefs could be open to compensation claims over the bungled repairs, which are linked to 36 accidents, a rate 12 times the Scottish average.
The bypass carries up to 85,000 cars a day and is one of Scotland's busiest stretches of road. Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws reveal that Transport Scotland investigators have been analysing the disturbing spate of accidents on its Dreghorn to Lothianburn section.
The vast majority of the accidents took place during wet weather, leading the experts to examine whether the stretch of road was draining properly. They found that the area is prone to having water lie on the road rather than drain off, leading to accidents.
Roadworks in 2006 aimed at fixing drains on the road, at a cost of £20,000, failed to make any difference.
One investigation, written in August, concluded: "It can be seen that no accidents occurred on this section of the A720 prior to the major upgrade in 1999. Since then, there has been a
continuing problem of wet-weather accidents occurring on this section of the City Bypass. Standing water resulting from a flat spot and poor surface-water drainage is considered to be the primary cause of these accidents."
Experts have considered a 50mph speed limit for the stretch, but police argued that it would be difficult to enforce. Advanced warning systems to urge motorists to slow down in the wet were seen as not getting to the root of the problem.
Technicians have decided to rebuild the road surface at an angle to help the rain run off. The works are scheduled for next month and will cost a further £130,000.
Investigators have still to come to a firm conclusion about what caused the problems in the first place. Another investigation, carried out last year, noted that the roadworks were carried out during bad weather, including heavy rain, and problems with snow and ice. The report added that today's construction standards for bonding together different layers of asphalt did not apply at the time.
In addition, Transport Scotland has admitted that they are examining a number of other road sections in the south-east of the country which have similar problems with drainage, although they were not necessarily constructed in the same way or at the same time.
They are the three sections of the A68, at Juniperlea, Blainslie junction and north of Earlston, the A7 at the Dunk south of Hawick, the M9 eastbound junctions three to two, and where the M9/M80 merge near Stirling.
A Transport Scotland spokesman said that it had no records of accidents at those six locations.
Willie Wills, the Scottish road safety manager for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: "There is an urgent need to find other parts of the road network that were repaired at a similar time with similar materials."
Neil Greig, director of the IAM Motoring Trust, added:
"Drivers who use the City Bypass and other roads with issues like this have a right to know about these concerns so that they can modify their driving behaviour."
And leading compensation lawyer Cameron Fyfe said: "An accident victim could have a case to sue if it could be shown that someone was negligent."
A spokeswoman for Transport Scotland said: "Where investigations or reviews point to the need for remedial measures, we will seek to implement these as quickly as possible. This is the case on the busy A720 at Dreghorn."
