The Edinburgh City Bypass, designated as A720, is one of the most important trunk roads in Scotland.

The road is dual carriageway standard throughout, including emergency laybys and hard shoulders in areas.

Every motorway in the UK is termed a special road in that specific regulations govern its use.

The A720 forms part of European route E15, which runs from Inverness, in northern Scotland, to Algeciras, in southern Spain.

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.

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.

The centre of these junctions are within one-half mile (800 metres) of each other, with a tangle of inter-weaving slips roads, flyovers, and underpasses between and either side of them.

The A71 provides one of the main routes into Edinburgh via Calder Road, and west to Livingston and Kilmarnock.

The original junction was a simple roundabout connecting both roads, and access to South Gyle and Edinburgh Park.