B9076

This article is about the current B9076 from Brae to Trondavoe Firth on Shetland Mainland.
For the original B9076 on the same island, now part of the A971, see B9076 (Bridge of Walls - Sandness).

The B9076 is a link road towards the north of Shetland Mainland, serving the Sullom Voe oil terminal. The road was originally unclassified but had gained its number by 1932.

The route starts on the A970 by the leisure centre in Brae. The village grew rapidly in the 1970s from a small community to one of the largest settlements on the Shetland Islands, largely thanks to the development of the oil industry. It now has a good range of businesses and services which serve the North Mainland. The island is very narrow here so although the route starts within sight of Busta Voe (an inlet on the west coast) the north coast at Sullom Voe is visible after a couple of hundred yards of driving through an industrial estate. The construction of a new supermarket means, however, that it is no longer quite possible to see both Voes at the same time from the road!

Passing Scatsta Airport

As the B9076 reaches the north coast, it bears right to snake along the shore and leave Brae past the Moorfield Hotel. The coast is followed around into Voxter Voe, another inlet, where the route and continues north through a shallow valley. The road is of obviously high quality and former alignments can often be seen alongside. The few houses of Trondravoe are quickly passed, and after reaching the summit, the road runs alongside the runway of Scatsta Airport; the access road to the terminal is met at the far end. Although there are a few slight kinks in this stretch of road, there is good forward visibility, effectively leading to a two mile long straight. At the far end, the road comes in sight of the coast again, with the oil terminal visible across the bay. A large harbour development sits on the headland of Sella Ness, between the airport and oil terminal.

After curving around the head of Garths Voe, the B9076 comes to a T junction, with the main access to Sullom Voe. The B9076 has to TOTSO right here, priority being given to traffic heading west to Sullom Voe. Now heading inland, the route climbs through a series of easy sweeping bends to a summit of around 40m as it crosses to the east coast. It then comes to an end at a T-junction on the A968 at the head of Firths Voe. The villages of Firth and Mossbank lie a short distance along the northern shore of the Voe, accessed from the next junction on the A968.

History

Although this route was probably classified in the late 1920s, for many years it was a fairly rural, quite road, serving the scattered communities along its length. All of this changed in the 1970s when Shetland's Oil Boom hit, and the development of Sullom Voe Oil Terminal saw a series of substantial improvements to the route. At the southern end it was mostly widened online, or very close at hand. Many of the bends have slight cuttings on the landward side, where the curve has been eased, and the remains of the old road can often be seen beyond the crash barrier opposite. On the south shore of Voxter Voe, the old bridge over the Burn of Valayre can still be seen, with the old road appearing to climb into a small quarry. This quarry is not shown on older maps, suggesting it was dug to provide stone for the road or other nearby works, and the substantial rock face just beyond also suggests that the old road curved round the hill above the new line.

The old road through Trondavoe survives as a pair of loops to the west of the modern line, serving the houses, and then as the new road sweeps round to the right, the old road can be seen continuing ahead towards the end of the runway. The 1961 OS One Inch Map shows the route then kinking hard right just before the airfield to reach the current route, but older maps seem to suggest that this kink was added when the airfield was built, and that previously the road took a straighter course, meeting the current line a little to the north of Scatsta Farm. Beyond the turning for Sella Ness, the old road turns right and survives as a minor road through the village of Graven, meeting the current line again just before the A968 junction, the whole of the current B9076 between these two junctions being new construction to serve Sullom Voe.