The M90 is a

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

in Scotland. It runs from Junction 1A of the M9 motorway, south of the

Queensferry Crossing The Queensferry Crossing (formerly the Forth Replacement Crossing) is a road bridge in Scotland. It was built alongside the existing Forth Road Bridge and carries the M90 motorway across the Firth of Forth between Edinburgh, at South Queensfer ...

, to

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. It is the northernmost motorway in the United Kingdom. The northern point goes to the western suburbs of Perth at Broxden. A small part of the M90 (across the

Friarton Bridge The Friarton Bridge is a steel box girder bridge with a concrete deck, across the River Tay on the southeastern outskirts of Perth, Scotland. It is located approximately upstream of the Tay Road Bridge. Design The bridge was constructed by th ...

to the southeast of Perth) was originally numbered as the M85 motorway.

History

The first section of the M90 opened in 1964 to coincide with the opening of the Forth Road Bridge and Masterton junction (Junction 2). The next section of the M90, the Crossgates – Kelty and Cowdenbeath Bypass, opened on 1 December 1969. The stretch between Kinross and the Milnathort Bypass opened in December 1971. The following two sections were due to begin construction around 1973 and 1974, however, they were put on hold because of the

1973 oil crisis The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had su ...

. The section from Arlary (Junction 8 with A91) to Arngask was opened in March 1977. Arngask (Glenfarg) to Muirmont opened in August 1980, connecting with the completed

(which was originally numbered M85, and opened in 1976) and Perth Bypass to Broxden. The M90 was extended southwards across the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...

over a new cable-stayed bridge, the

, in 2017. A short stretch of the A90 connects the two parts of M90: the short M90 section from the M9 and the much longer M90 section that crosses the Queensferry Crossing and extends to Perth. This short length of the A90 was required at this point as motorway regulations would have prevented certain classes of traffic from using this section of road.

Details

The M90 leaves the east-west M9 near Kirkliston and heads north. The motorway is interrupted by a short stretch of the A90 from where the A90 from Edinburgh joins the M90. The road continues, however the M90 during this stretch is called the A90. Once it reaches the junction to the south of the Queensferry Crossing the A90 becomes the M90 again at that point. The crossing opened as part of the motorway on 30 August 2017; the bridge is configured as a dual two lane carriageway and has a speed limit of 70 mph. Previously, the M90's most substantial engineering feature was the

in Perth, a tall concrete pillared structure which traverses the

River Tay The River Tay ( gd, Tatha, ; probably from the conjectured Brythonic ''Tausa'', possibly meaning 'silent one' or 'strong one' or, simply, 'flowing') is the longest river in Scotland and the seventh-longest in Great Britain. The Tay originates i ...

. The bridge carries eastbound traffic from Broxden towards Dundee and along the Firth of Tay. The road constitutes most of the southerly part of the A90 corridor from

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, through Perth,

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

and

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...

to Peterhead along Scotland's

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

coast. A large part of the northern section of the motorway follows the route of the former main railway line between Perth and Edinburgh via

Glenfarg Glenfarg (Scottish Gaelic: Gleann Fairg) is a village in the Ochil Hills in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Until 14 June 1964, the village had a railway station, Glenfarg railway station, on the main line between Perth and Edinburgh via Kinross. ...

Kinross Kinross (, gd, Ceann Rois) is a burgh in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, around south of Perth and around northwest of Edinburgh. It is the traditional county town of the historic county of Kinross-shire. History Kinross's origins are c ...

and the

Forth Bridge The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, west of central Edinburgh. Completed in 1890, it is considered a symbol of Scotland (having been voted Scotland's greatest man-made wonder in ...

, which was closed in 1970 despite this not being recommended by the Beeching report. The Kinross and Milnathort Bypass, the section of the M90 between Fruix and Arlary, was the first motorway in Britain to be constructed using concrete pavements that were not reinforced. Both the south-bound & the north-bound Carriageways have since been overlaid by

tarmac Tarmac may refer to: Engineered surfaces * Tarmacadam, a mainly historical tar-based material for macadamising road surfaces, patented in 1902 * Asphalt concrete, a macadamising material using asphalt instead of tar which has largely superseded tar ...

. Near to its northern terminus, the motorway splits into two branches. The construction of this three-way interchange required the removal of approximately 900,000 cubic metres of material, which was mostly rock. The motorway bends through in an

acute angle In Euclidean geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays, called the '' sides'' of the angle, sharing a common endpoint, called the ''vertex'' of the angle. Angles formed by two rays lie in the plane that contains the rays. Angles ar ...

, on a compound curve partly of 520.8 m and partly of 694.5 m in its radius. One branch heads in a north-easterly direction, flowing into the A90 at its end, numbered junction 11. (This branch was formerly the M85 motorway, until the A85 was renumbered as A90.) The other branch forms part of the western bypass of

, and meets the A9 at its end, numbered junction 12.M90 J12 Broxden
''sabre-roads.org.uk'' (retrieved 2013-01-16) The gradient is 4.57% uphill and 5.65% downhill on this section. The slip roads forming this branch merge with shared priority to allow HGVs (also known as Large Good Vehicles or Heavy Goods Vehicles) to maintain momentum on the steep upgrade. The Broxden to Muirmont slip road at the centre of the interchange has a radius of 136.4 m, necessitating maximum superelevation of 7%. The M90 forms part of the Euroroute E15 which runs from

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histor ...

to Algeciras, but which is not signposted within the UK.

Issues

The M90 lacks hard shoulders for an section. In this section there are emergency lay-bys (rest areas) at intervals instead. The M90 here has another of the tightest corners on the UK motorway network, for which some traffic can be forced to slow down. The corner cuts through the northern side of the

Ochil Hills The Ochil Hills (; gd, Monadh Ochail is a range of hills in Scotland north of the Forth valley bordered by the towns of Stirling, Alloa, Kinross, Auchterarder and Perth. The only major roads crossing the hills pass through Glen Devon/ Gle ...

and has a curve radius of 694.5 m (a recommended minimum of 914 m was standard at the time of construction). This corner also coincides with one of the steepest sections of the motorway, for which north-bound HGVs are sign-posted to stay in a low gear and often brake continuously through the turn. South-bound HGVs are normally substantially reduced in speed as they make the incline.

Junctions

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, — , 0 , 0 , — , –

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

, , - , rowspan="3", Queensferry , 2.6 , 4.1 , bgcolor="ffdddd" , 1 , bgcolor="ffdddd" , –

, bgcolor="ffdddd" , no Eastbound exit or Southbound entrance , - , 4.0 , 6.5 , 1a , – Queensferry, Newton , , - , rowspan="6",

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...

, 6.7 , 10.8 , 1b , – Queensferry
B981- Inverkeithing,

Rosyth Dockyard Rosyth Dockyard is a large naval dockyard on the Firth of Forth at Rosyth, Fife, Scotland, owned by Babcock Marine, which formerly undertook refitting of Royal Navy surface vessels and submarines. Before its privatisation in the 1990s it was ...

, , - , rowspan="2", Rosyth , 7.7 , 12.4 , 1c , – Rosyth, Kincardine
B921- Hillend, Kirkaldy , , - , 8.2 , 13.2 , 2 , UK-Motorway-A823 (M)

A823(M)– Rosyth,

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; sco, Dunfaurlin, gd, Dùn Phàrlain) is a city, parish and former Royal Burgh, in Fife, Scotland, on high ground from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. The city currently has an estimated population of 58,508. Acco ...

, , - , rowspan="2",

, 10.6 , 17.1 , bgcolor="ffdddd" , 2a , bgcolor="ffdddd" , –

Glenrothes Glenrothes (; , ; sco, Glenrothes; gd, Gleann Rathais) is a town situated in the heart of Fife, in east-central Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south of Dundee. The town had a population of 39,277 in the 2011 census, making it ...

, bgcolor="ffdddd" , no Northbound entrance or Southbound exit , - , 11.3 , 18.2 , 3 , – Glenrothes
- Dunfermline , , - , rowspan="2", — , 14.9 , 23.9 , 4 , B914- Kelty , , - , rowspan="8",

Perth and Kinross Perth and Kinross ( sco, Pairth an Kinross; gd, Peairt agus Ceann Rois) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland and a Lieutenancy Area. It borders onto the Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, Fife, Highland ...

, 17.6 , 28.3 , 5 , B9097-

Crook of Devon Crook of Devon is a village within the parish of Fossoway in Kinross-shire about west of Kinross on the A977 road. Its name derives from the nearly 180-degree turn, from generally eastwards to generally westwards and resembling the shape of a s ...

, , - , rowspan="3",

, 20.7 , 33.3 , 6 , –

, Crook of Devon , , - , 21.9 , 35.2 , bgcolor="ffdddd" , 7 , bgcolor="ffdddd" , –

Milnathort Milnathort is a small town in the parish of Orwell in the county of Kinross-shire, Scotland and since 1996, the local council area of Perth and Kinross. The smaller neighbour of nearby Kinross, Milnathort has a population of around 2,000 peopl ...

, bgcolor="ffdddd" , no Southbound entrance or Northbound exit , - , 24.1 , 38.8 , bgcolor="ffdddd" , 8 , bgcolor="ffdddd" , –

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourt ...

, bgcolor="ffdddd" , no Northbound entrance or Southbound exit , - , rowspan="2", Bridge of Earn , 32.5 , 52.3 , 9 , – Bridge of Earn, Gateside , , - , 34.7 , 55.8 , bgcolor="ffdddd" , 10 , bgcolor="ffdddd" , - Perth , bgcolor="ffdddd" , Motorway splits into two, southbound entrance and Northbound exit only for A912 , - , rowspan="2",

, 36.0 , 58.0 , 11 , –

–

Oban Oban ( ; ' in Scottish Gaelic meaning ''The Little Bay'') is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William. During the tourist season, ...

, On the Eastern branch after the split , - , 60.4 , 37.5 , 12 , -

–

perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, On the Western branch after the split ;Coordinate list

References

External links