Nowhere to hide as A9 fiasco finally exposed amid government failings and contract catastrophes and now a bitter political stand-off
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The dualling of the A9 is firmly at the top of Scotland’s political agenda after a momentous week involving revelations about government failings, appointments and now a bitter political stand-off in Holyrood – that featured The Inverness Courier.
Conservative leader and Highland MSP Douglas Ross kicked off by holding up a copy of the Ross-shire Journal's sister publication the Courier in parliament and ended by referring to another front page.
He asked First Minister Humza Yousaf: “How many more people need to die before the SNP government reduces the risk to drivers and fixes this dangerous road?”
Mr Ross also tackled the mystery of the government-initiated question to “announce the latest procurement timetable for the Tomatin to Moy section” which was pulled at the last minute.
Such questions come when the government of the day wants to make a statement or an announcement but Mr Yousaf’s claim that he wanted to give the new transport team time did not stack-up.
At the time the question was submitted there wasn’t even a transport minister in place, though Fiona Hyslop was announced the next day while the cabinet secretary Mairi MacAllan will now take transport to the cabinet level.
The First Minister repeated assurances that the dualling of the Inverness-Perth section – originally promised to be complete by 2025, but declared “unachievable” four months ago – would happen and rebuffed suggestions it would take until 2050.
But he did stand by the SNP’s record on infrastructure, repeating lines issued by Transport Scotland earlier in the week, with claims that £430 million was spent on the A9 dualling while the M8 corridor got motorway improvements, the Queensferry Crossing and the Aberdeen peripheral route – taken together that is around £2.6 billion of investment.
'Utter disregard and disrespect' for victims
That will do nothing to assuage campaigners like Laura Hansler who at the petition committee on Wednesday called for action on dualling and slammed what she said was the Scottish Government’s “betrayal of the Highlands”.
“But mostly it is a complete and utter disregard and disrespect shown to those who have lost their lives, and their loved ones left behind,” she added.
There was further explosive evidence at the committee which saw convener Jackson Carlaw accuse Transport Scotland of acting like dinosaurs by using a procurement contract abandoned in 1993 when Jurassic Park was released.
The contract made the executive agency, in the opinion of the industry “across the UK as the worst client to work for in the UK” but worse was to follow when it was revealed progress could have been made but the chance was not taken.
Four sections were but there was no cash
Four sections of the A9 were ready to be dualled but the funding from the Scottish Government was not made available. They were Pitlochry to Killiecrankie; Dalwhinnie to Crubenmore; Glen Garry to Dalwhinnie and Tomatin to Moy.
The latter was cancelled in February by Scottish ministers as not representing value for money but it emerged at the petitions committee the re-tendering process will unlikely be finished by the end of the year and will cost more than bid.
The committee also heard that four of the 11 dualling sections are ready to go and just needed the funding and the green light from the Scottish Government to proceed – but no action was taken.
It would cost £4 billion to finish A9 quickly
Detailed questioning by Inverness and Nairn MSP Fergus Ewing of Grahame Barn, the chief executive of the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) Scotland revealed what the future of the dualling programme may look like.
“If you are looking to get it done the quickest way, then it could be done in two or three sections,” Mr Barn said.
“That would be the quickest way but it would be absolutely terrible to drive between Perth and Inverness, Inverness may be cut off for some time but that would be the quickest way.
“How you fund that is another challenge around this because that could be £4 billion worth of work to be done.”
Another option would be through private finance initiative (PFI) but that also had drawbacks and Mr Barn did not advocate for any particular approach instead sketching them out for the committee.
He said: “There are some concerns through the private sector here about the PFI approach and you would then have to go to a European contractor who would then come in and have the problem of them not having the supply chain.
“You could have a 10-year framework idea where you put all the contractors bids into the framework and then allocate work to these contractors as and when you have the money to do them.
“It usually costs money to get on that framework – it could be £400,000 to £500,000 – and they would only spend that money if there were cast-iron guarantees that there is the funding available to actually complete the dualling.”
Finally there is the bit-part approach “which would take the longest time to do because it is to break down the sections into even smaller sections and you just do it as and when you can afford to do it,” Mr Barn explained.
“It will take longer, it would support the indigenous Scottish construction industry, you would retain a road building capability within Scotland but it would take a very long period of time for the road to be dualled in that way.”
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