A702 Roundabout Works To Commence

Scottish Water are preparing to start enabling works which will lead into the construction of a new major roundabout on the A702 trunk road at Mauricewood.

Months of infrastructure enhancement works to create a roundabout on the A702/Mauricewood Road junction will get underway on Thursday 18 February as Scottish Water undertake stage one of their project to divert water pipes.

The roadworks will precede those by Transport Scotland and Amey South East of Scotland Trunk Routes who will install the roundabout before the year’s end. Scottish Water hope to complete their roadworks in three stages before July. During each stage there will be a period of roughly one week where traffic management will have to be employed at the junction. The first stage will see in the installation of crash barriers and temporary traffic lights will be used from Thursday 18 February. Delays can be expected at peak times.

Community Team Manager Bill Elliot said:

We are grateful to customers and motorists for their patience and understanding during this work which Scottish Water is required to carry out to facilitate planned development in the area.

Stage two will be the laying of the new pipes and associated works. In the final stage (three) Scottish Water will remove the crash barriers and the site will likely be handed over the next contractor. Dates for these stages will be announced at a later date.

The roundabout is being funded by Taylor Wimpey who agreed to the upgrade as part of their developer contributions for their new Greenlaw Mill development in north west Penicuik. A total of £4.3m will be spent during the construction of the new junction, which it is hoped will withstand the increased volumes of traffic generated from the town’s planned new housing developments.

As the plan shows above, the current routes of Mauricewood Road and Belwood Road will be altered with the new roundabout sitting north of the current T-junction. The A702 will also be widened to accommodate additional lanes on approach.

However the public has been calling for urgent improvements to Penicuik’s trunk routes after facing an average delay of thirty minutes during the morning commute. The City Bypass (A720) is believed to be operating at 140% capacity during peak hours, causing further delays downstream and around its junctions. Our editor has his say here.

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