Information AboutM8 Motorway |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT M8 MOTORWAY | |
| motorways in scotland | |
| 8-0008 | |
| transport in edinburgh | |
| transport in glasgow | |
| transport in renfrewshire | |
| transport in west lothian | |
| transport in north lanarkshire | |
and the "Bridge to nowhere"]] ]] The M8 is the busiest Motorway in Scotland . An east-west artery it connects Edinburgh west to Glasgow and ends at the Firth Of Clyde . LAYOUT The M8 runs west from the west side of Edinburgh , where it interconnects with the Edinburgh City Bypass . It connects with the M9 a few miles west of the city, before passing Livingston , and Bathgate , but reverts to the A8 at the junction with the A73 before passing Airdrie , and Coatbridge then reverting to the M8 again at Baillieston Interchange east of Glasgow where it meets the M73 (which joins the M74 roughly three km (two miles) to the south. It then heads westward through the eastern suburbs of Glasgow before turning south and crossing the River Clyde on the Kingston Bridge , one of the busiest motorway river crossings in Europe . South of the river the M8 intersects with the M77 and continues west, passing Renfrew , Paisley and Glasgow Airport terminating at West Ferry to the east of Langbank at the junction with the A8 Greenock Road across the Clyde from Dumbarton . The M8 was largely completed by 1970 . Together with the as-yet unbuilt extension to the M74, the M8 forms two sides of An Uncompleted Ring Road around Glasgow city centre. The northern extension of the M74 to just south of the Kingston Bridge should alleviate some of the congestion problems, but this is not planned to be completed until 2008 . Glasgow City Council have recently published plans to complete the eastern flank of the ring road, which will leave the new section of the M74 at Polmadie , cutting northwards through Parkhead , and Carntyne , connecting with the M8 at Junction 13 ( Provan Gas Works /Plantation). It is unclear at this stage whether this will be a motorway standard road, or if indeed the proposal will get the go-ahead given the already fierce opposition to the M74 extension. The M8 closely parallels, and in part replaces, the A8 Road . The M8 is broken at one point, at the eastern edge of Glasgow between Junction 8 Baillieston and Junction 6 Newhouse, where it reverts to the being the A8 for 10 km (6 miles). An upgrade programme instigated in late 2002 improved the quality of this section of road greatly, but it remained an A-classified dual carriageway. The task of upgrading this section to motorway standard has long been a thorny issue for the being completed by 2011 . This will be started, pending a public enquiry, in 2007, and will see several new junctions being built at Chapelhall (Jct. 6B?) and Bargeddie (Jct. 8A?). An entirely new section of motorway is also to be built between Eurocentral and Bargeddie, which will be to the south of the existing A8, and will see the construction of a large new free flowing junction at Shawhead (Jct. 7?), where the M8 will meet the A725 . The existing A8 at this section will be downgraded to a single carriageway feeder road for the many farms that currently feed onto it, as well as the road to Carnbroe, which will not be connected to the new motorway. The new motorway is planned to be of the the three lane type, until the new junction which will replace the existing Euorcentral junction on the A8. Between Euorocentral and the existing Newhouse junction (Jct. 6) with the A73 the new motorway is planned to be of the two lane type with a parrallel dual carriageway that will allow access to the existing Chapelhall Junction and also eastbound exit and westbound access to/from the Newhouse Junction, where a lot of existing traffic leaves the motorway, which will also see major junction improvements to its heavily congested and poorly laid out two roundabouts and dual carriageway leading to a dangerous fork in the road. Regarded as one of the most poorly-designed motorways in the UK , rivalled only by London's infamous M25 , the Central Glasgow section of the M8 is notorious for bottlenecks and delays between the M8's eastern and western sections. This is largely due to the closely spaced junctions, and the fact that both the M73 and M80 from the south and north east dump all their traffic onto a 5-lane stretch that in the space of a 3 km (2 miles) reduces to only 2 lanes as the M8 blasts a path through the city centre. In 2004 it was announced that a section of the M8 was the 2nd busiest stretch of road in the entire UK, after a section of the M60 Motorway (usually a section of the M25 Motorway holds the honour of the busiest, but had unusually low traffic figures in 2004 due to roadworks). An average of 173,000 vehicles per day used that stretch of the M8 in 2004. TRIVIA
''See also: List Of Motorways In The United Kingdom '' KEY M8 MILESTONES
EXIT LIST SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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