Edinburgh City Bypass

The Edinburgh City Bypass, designated as A720, is one of the most important trunk roads in Scotland. Circling around the south of Edinburgh, as the equivalent of a ring road for the coastal city, it links together the A1 towards north-east England, the A702 towards north-west England, the M8 through the Central Belt towards Glasgow, the A7 through south-east Scotland and north-west England as well as the A8 leading to the M9 for Stirling and the Queensferry Crossing.

The road is dual carriageway standard throughout, including emergency laybys and hard shoulders in areas. The road is classed as a special road in legal terms. Every motorway in the UK is termed a special road in that specific regulations govern its use. Not every special road is classed as a motorway and this bypass is one of those roads.

The A720 forms part of European route E15, which runs from Inverness, in northern Scotland, to Algeciras, in southern Spain. North of Gogar, the E15 runs towards the A90 and the Queensferry Crossing; and south of Old Craighall on the A1.

A720 was built in sections between 1980 and 1989. The first section built was the Colinton section (A702 to Baberton) opened in 1981, with the Dreghorn junction opening circa 1985. Next up was the Sighthill section (Baberton to A8 at Gogarburn) which opened in late 1986. 1988 saw two sections open: the Burdiehouse section (A702 to A701) in the summer followed in the autumn by the section between the A68 at Sheriffhall and the A1 at Old Craighall. The last section was completed in 1989 around the Gilmerton junction.

The A720 starts at the Old Craighall junction in the east where it meets the A1, from which traffic can approach Edinburgh city centre from the east, or run past Musselburgh and Haddington on the way to England.

This junction comes shortly after the eastern start of the A720, which was completed in 2008 as the Dalkeith Northern Bypass of the A68. This is a crucial route for traffic to south-east Scotland.

In 2013 the road between Millerhill and Sheriffhall was temporarily diverted for the construction of a new underbridge serving the rebuilt Edinburgh-Galashiels railway line, as the original railway had been closed and was built over when the bypass was built.

About 1+1⁄2 miles (2.5 kilometres) further is the most congested junction on the bypass. Whereas all the other junctions on the bypass are grade separated, Sheriffhall is a traffic-light controlled roundabout and the traffic problems of forcing all through A720 traffic to halt is worsened by the importance of the roads which intersect here – the A7 which leads north to the city centre and south to Carlisle, the former A68 which now leads to Dalkeith and the A68, and the A6106. Traffic jams are common at most times of day. The junction was not built with grade separation because of a geological fault that crosses the bypass here, and the area having (at the time) active coal mining.