diff --git a/bin/env.sh b/bin/env.sh
index 0e3b82e0a0c6a26a98783166f6ddbff0813bb1a6..056661b4145c88920c28221d56ced363cba7cc51 100755
--- a/bin/env.sh
+++ b/bin/env.sh
@@ -87,6 +87,11 @@ export JUGGLER_INSTALL_PREFIX=`realpath ${JUGGLER_INSTALL_PREFIX}`
 if [ ! -n  "${LOCAL_DATA_PATH}" ] ; then 
   export LOCAL_DATA_PATH="/scratch/${CI_PROJECT_NAME}_${CI_PIPELINE_ID}"
 fi
+mkdir -p "${LOCAL_DATA_PATH}"
+if [ ! -d "${LOCAL_DATA_PATH}" ]; then 
+  echo "LOCAL_DATA_PATH (${LOCAL_DATA_PATH}) does not exist!!"
+  exit 1
+fi
 
 ## =============================================================================
 ## Other utility variables that govern how some of the dependent packages
@@ -115,12 +120,12 @@ echo "JUGGLER_N_THREADS:          ${JUGGLER_N_THREADS}"
 echo "JUGGLER_RNG_SEED:           ${JUGGLER_RNG_SEED}"
 echo "JUGGLER_INSTALL_PREFIX:     ${JUGGLER_INSTALL_PREFIX}"
 echo "LOCAL_PREFIX:               ${LOCAL_PREFIX}"
-echo "LOCAL_DATA_PATH:            ${LOCAL_DATA_PATH}"
 echo "DETECTOR_PREFIX:            ${DETECTOR_PREFIX}"
 echo "DETECTOR_PATH:              ${DETECTOR_PATH}"
 echo "ROOT_BUILD_DIR:             ${ROOT_BUILD_DIR}"
 echo "BEAMLINE_CONFIG:            ${BEAMLINE_CONFIG}"
 echo "BEAMLINE_CONFIG_VERSION:    ${BEAMLINE_CONFIG_VERSION}"
+echo "LOCAL_DATA_PATH:            ${LOCAL_DATA_PATH}"
 
 ## =============================================================================
 ## Setup PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH to include our prefixes
diff --git a/bin/mkdir_local_data_link b/bin/mkdir_local_data_link
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..6d286d2b4a0f216ffbf672953ddb54363d6d2aba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/mkdir_local_data_link
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -o nounset
+set -o errexit
+
+dirname="$1"
+
+mkdir -p "${LOCAL_DATA_PATH}/${dirname}"
+ln -s "${LOCAL_DATA_PATH}/${dirname}" ${dirname}
+
+
+
diff --git a/share/common.yml b/share/common.yml
index 5e944aeb3f4ebf1f983768545bf687e6b4b21602..53f4b7b1326941968f772bb7a141e7b997e87d37 100644
--- a/share/common.yml
+++ b/share/common.yml
@@ -29,6 +29,6 @@ common:detector:
       - config
   script:
     - source .local/bin/env.sh && build_detector.sh
-    - mkdir -p /scratch/${CI_PROJECT_NAME}_${CI_PIPELINE_ID}
-    - mkdir -p /scratch/${CI_PROJECT_NAME}_${CI_PIPELINE_ID}/sim_output
+    - bin/mkdir_local_data_link sim_output 
     - print_env.sh
+    - ls -lrth