Raft of roadworks for safer walking and cycling to start soon

March and April will see a raft of road works taking place across mainland Orkney aimed at helping make cycling, walking and wheeling in Orkney safer and more enjoyable.

March will see the installation of gateway signage at five mainland Orkney villages – with the installation of welcome signs, countdown markers, red textured surfacing and other road markings- to help remind and encourage motorists to honour the lower speed limits.

And starting Monday (28 February), work will start to improve crossings at 25 locations across Kirkwall – with drop kerbs installed or lowered and tactile paving installed to enable safer, wheelchair accessible walking routes and access for visually impaired pedestrians around Kirkwall.

Both streams of work are being funded by £98k of Transport Scotland’s ‘Walking Cycling Safer Routes’ funding secured by the Council.

The ‘village gateway’ works – at Dounby, Burray, Toab, St Mary’s and Deerness - are expected to be completed by the end of March.

In addition Burray, Dounby and Toab are all seeing the speed limit through the village reduced from 40mph to 30mph.

The 30mph speed limit in St Mary’s village is being extended towards the first Barrier to past the Commodore entrance. In Burray, the 30mph zone on Westshore Road will be extended to take in the Bloomfield Road junction.

The work on kerbs and crossings in Kirkwall will take place throughout March and into mid-April. These works have been identified and prioritised following discussions with the local Access Panel to help ensure that improvements are provided where they are needed most. Work will start, from Monday 28 February, on the crossing at the junction of Carters Park Road with Berstane Road, before moving onto the crossing along the top of Cromwell Drive, with crews moving onto the access into Logie Drive on Thursday and Friday.

Councillor Graham Sinclair, Chair of the Development and Infrastructure Committee, said: “All these works have involved input from local communities and stakeholders. It’s testament to the community spirit of all involved and the hard work of officers across the Council to see this raft of works now underway and supporting the ambitions of local communities for safer, more enjoyable and greener use of our roads.”