Edinburgh Evening News - Edinburgh - Gas works set to cook up summer road chaos

Well it looks like the roadwork free Slateford road is about to get a pounding. Due to gas main replacement on Gorgie Road, East bound traffic will be diverted up Robertson Avenue, along Slateford Road, and down Ardmillan Terrace.

In Gorgie Road, 500 metres of new gas main is to be installed between Stewart Terrace and McLeod Street at a cost of £275,000.

Work is due to start on the 2st May and last 3 months. Wonder how long it will actually last?

There’s something wrong with diverting the eastbound traffic though. Traffic will have to turn right on to robertson avenue, crossing the westbound traffic flow. Once on Ardmillan Terrace the traffic will once again have to cross the traffic stream going westbound.

As seen on Lothian Road, for most of the time there’s nobody on site, and when there is, there’s only 2 or 3 guys about. No rush, just get it done without killing somebody.

ScotlandTraffic » Blog Archive » Queensferry Road / Orchard Brae Roadworks over-run - Council says their finished

First they were completed

Then they were uncompleted a week later

By the looks of it absolutly no work has been done on the junction in over a week.

The City of Edinburgh Council - Clarence weekly road report and events diary
Acording to the weekly Clarence weekly road report for the week ending 29th April, the roadworks on the Queensferry Road / Orchard Brae junction were finished on the 27th April as planned.

We’ll I hate to see what the council class as it being finished! The temporary lights are still there and operational, Orchard Brae is still single file, Dean Path Road is still closed, the central reservation islands are still unfinished, and the old pedestrian crossing is still there.

It’s amazing that it’s taken 9 weeks to get this far, but it’s still got away to go. Anytime I have driven past there has been very few workers onsite and very few vehicles.

Apart from the vast time it’s taken to do a relatively straight forward resurface and movement of two traffic Islands, it will be interesting to see how it affects the traffic movements.

Gone is the right filter lane from Queensferry Road down Orchard Brae going out of town, and so is the filter lane from Queensferry Road turning left down Orchard Brae going in to town. Queensferry Road city bound is now down to one lane just after the traffic lights also.

Having tried to cross this road as a pedestrian I agree the pedestrian crossing was needed, but they didn’t need to reduce the junctions capacity by as much as they have.

I await to see how the traffic light timing works out when they are eventually turned on.

ScotlandTraffic » Blog Archive » Slateford Road - Road Works
Well work started on the 5th March for 6 weeks, and it was finished on Friday 13th April so it looks like the council did actually make their 6 week deadline. They’ve still to finish painting the lines, but all the tartmac appears to have been finished off.

Unfortunatly though it looks like a slightly different situation. “We’ll dig the road up for 6 weeks and see how far we get” is more acurate. The resurfacing goes from the junction with Harrison Road to just after the junction with Roberstson Avenue. One side of the road is resurfaced further than the otherside - like they ran out of time.

Planning and Building Standards Portal
Described in the evening news as being hidden underground - doesn’t look like it will be hidden to me

‘Sitefinder’ Mobile Phone Base Station Database
Find out who owns your local telephone tower transmitter or see if there’s any hidden in buildings near your home.

222 Chinese Takeaway, 26 Bryson Road Edinburgh

222 Chineese Takeway has been open about 6 months and can be found on the north west junction of Bryson Road and Tay Street. The former Pizza takeaway can be easilly found - just follow the noise of the loud extractor fan.

Ordered Chiken and Pinapple, fried rice, chips and prawn crackers. Total waiting time 9 minutes. Total cost of £8.50.

Prawn Crackers - I could see the large container of pre-cooked crackers siting behind the desk so wasn’t expecting them to be freshly cooked. Not the bigest bag, but they tasted like prawns, so they were acceptable - 5/10.

Chips - the chips were tasty and lovely. 8/10 For chips from a Chineese.

Fried Rice - disapointed - basically boiled rice with a bit of soya sauce - 3/10.

Chicken and Pinapple - This was served in one of the larger plastic containers which is unusual. large chunks of chicken, a few bits of green and red pepper, and a wee bit of suace. Tasted ok, but I’m not a fan of large chuncks of chicken. Unfortunatly there wasn’t much sauce in the dish and not enough to cover the rice. 4/10

Would I use it again - probably not. Total raiting 5/10.

Fat Sams nightclub - half demolished - a photoset on Flickr
Some excelent photos of the demolition of Fat Sam’s in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. Fat Sams was on the site of the former Edinburgh Meat Market.

The site also had the nightclub “The Ark”

Following my recent trip to the Edinburgh Room within Central Library, I have now found many of the maps online. The National Library of Scotland has a vast colection of maps and photos of old Edinburgh.

Kirkwood 1812 - this is the plan that shows the 3 possible routes of the Union Canal

Town Plan Of Edinburgh 1849 - Another good historical map of Edinburgh, this time showing a completed Union Canal and the railway lines in to Waverley and the Caledonian Hotel. This map is one of the first to show the newly completed Dean Bridge.

And if anybody knows what the black dotted line is on this map please let me know - as it passes very close to whre my flat is now.

Couldn’t be bothered doing anything today so decided to visit the Edinburgh Room, within Central Library on George the 4th Bridge in Edinburgh.

The Edinburgh room contains books, maps, prints, old newspapers and other stuff relating to Edinburgh’s past. My main reason for visiting was to have a look at old maps of Edinburgh - something I find facinating.

The Edinburgh rooms is actually a lot smaller than I imagined it would be. The rooms can be found down a set of stairs off the main entrance. Found the maps section quickly but found the “please do not touch maps - please ask at desk” message. Given I didn’t know what I was looking for how could I ask???

Anyway, found a map on one of the walls that dated from about 1812. I found it facinating. The map was drawn before the Canal or trains arrived in Edinburgh - the map showed 3 possible routes for the canal as it entered Edinburgh. The first route passed roughly along the lines of Dalry Road, through the west end, along Princes Street Gardens, through what is now Waverly Station and down towards Lieth docks. Route 2 was roughly as it is now, but instead of terminating at Lothian Road, it joined up with Route 1 roughly where the Caledonian Hotel is now. Route 3 passed further to the south - between Polwarth Terrace and Colinton Road, passed through the meadows and down to Leith. Sadly the map finished short of where my flat is now…

Next I found the Tram plans from 2003. I’ve looked at them many times on the Trams for Edinburgh website but it was different seeing them in colour in a printed form. One interesting point I found was at Haymarket Junction. Currently there are 4 lanes of traffic running eastbound - when the trams are there will be just one! 1 Lane for cars, 2 lanes for the trams, and one lane for a bus lane running westbound. Morrison street will become 2 way from Haymarket up to it’s junction with Semple Street. If your coming in to town on the A8 you ill be able to turn left up Dalry Road without having to go round the one way system. Not sure if anybody would actually need to do this as their are quicker routes. I still can’t see how their going to squeeze 2 tram lines, a pedestrian footpath and a cycle lane down the Roseburn corridor.

Next I found old airial photographs of Edinburgh taken between 1960 and 1990. Places like Sighthill and Longstone were brand new and looked very sparce. No sign of plants or trees. Sighthill didn’t yet have the dual caridgeway but did have it’s tower blocks. To the north of the city the gass works at Granton looked like a major operation. Telford College was just beeing built - which today is just being demolished!

Next was the various books that have been writen about Edinburgh. Found one about the old Colinton Railway line - a route I often walk. Amazing to see photos of where the stations used to be and the vast industries that once thrived there. None of the platforms exist today and most of the industry has long since gone and been demolished.

Just as I was leaving I spoted some more maps sitting round the corner. Hadn’t a clue how they were organised so picked a few up at random. The folders contained photocopies of a much larger map of arround 1900. Finally I found a map of the area I now live. Back then it was owned by “Watson Hospital” - as was much of the land arround Merchiston and Dalry. By the looks of it my flat was on farmland and had never been developed before then. One interesting thing was a large lake that used to be in the area of Watson Crescent with a river running down towards the Dalry / Gorgie junction. No sign of this today.