THE dualling of the A9 trunk road, or the lack of it, appears to have been a topic of some discussion since time began.

Before even that some would say as deadline after deadline passes and the road is still as notorious as ever, although to be fair it has improved in recent years.

It has been dubbed Scotland’s most dangerous road, with an average of 5.4 deaths per year between 2011 and 2022.

There are twice as many deaths on the single carriageway section of the road compared to sections which have already been dualled.

So far two sections totalling 11 miles have been upgraded, with 77 miles still to be done.

Alex Salmond’s government announced in 2011 that the road would be dual carriageway for its entire length between Perth and Inverness by 2025.

However, in 2023 the Scottish Government was forced to admit that would not be feasible and a revised target of 2035 was set instead.

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This week, however, some good news appeared to be on the horizon with the announcement that spades are finally going to be in the ground on another section.

Unfortunately for the beleaguered regular users of road from Perth to Inverness, the spades will not be wielded by construction workers, but by archaeologists instead.

A contract has been awarded to Rubicon........

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