Skip to main content

Roads Opening On M8, M73 and M74

Keith Brown has announced the opening of the M8, M73 and M74 as part of the £500 million M8, M73 and M74 Motorway Improvements Project.



The Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair work said all daytime lane restrictions on the M8, M73 and M74 will be removed progressively over the coming days, freeing up capacity on the key part of Central Scotland's motorway network.

This will allow road users to experience the benefit of the widened motorways and help deliver the full journey time savings of the new M8 motorway opened in April and the M74 Raith Underpass opened in February.

As part of the Motorway Improvements Project, a range of improvements have been built over the last three years, including a new M8 motorway, significant improvements to Raith and Shawhead junctions as well as widening of the M8 M73 and M74, with new lanes providing an increase in motorway capacity.

Mr Brown, said; £We are just a few days away from seeing the last of the lane restrictions being removed from the motorway network as originally planned.

"When this happens, Scotland's economy will start to see the economic benefit of this half billion pound investment in the nation's infrastructure. These huge improvements to the Central Scotland motorway network, which had been operating significantly beyond capacity, will improve connections for business and road users alike.

"The will unleash the economic benefits which lie at the heart of this project and help our economy grow in a sustainable manner.

"This will result in better journey times during peak periods, better connectivity, journey time reliability, and road safety, improving access to facilities and employment areas."

The announcement comes less than five weeks after the new M8 motorway opened to traffic.

The final configuration of the A8 will also open in the coming days with the new A8 over-bridge from Eurocentral west towards Shawhead.

 The Scottish Government is working with Scottish ROads Partnership (SRP), along with funding from the European Investment Bank and Allianz Global Investors, to deliver this vital infrastructure project linking the key routes to central Scotland.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Placing Bets On 2017 UK General Election

With the General Election on June 8th quickly approaching, political betting website BetOnPolitics.co.uk is offering readers live odds on all 650 constituencies. In the past few years political betting has become bis business. One firm alone took £3million on the last UK General Election, and £5million on last year's US Election. Unsurprisingly the bookmakers "anticipate huge bettering interest" on the 2017 snap election. Betting on a range of election markets, including voter turnout and odds for all 650 constituencies, updated in real time, will be live on betonpolitics.co.uk/category/constituency/ in the run-up to June 8th. Phil Loew, ediotr of the BetOnPolitics website, said; "As well as providing the very latest pre-election news, we'll also be working hard to inform our readers about the best odds available on various political markets. "Polls and Election betting markets may suggest that Prime Minister Theresa May is going to win the elec...

Driving Lessons

If you are anything like me you will have put learning to drive off until you absolutely had too. There where a number of things which prevented me from getting behind the wheel, and, unlike most the cost wasn't the biggest thing. No, my biggest worry about driving was my personal disbelief that I, only of eight stone and five feet one inch, could possibly, ever, make something as big as a car move. Every time my mind climbed over the wall that stopped me from thinking I could move the car I was assaulted by fears of endless stalling, the possibility of turning the car directly into a ditch, veering into a car that was overtaking for I failed to remember where the break was, and the ultimate worry that I would turn an inicent by-stander into a pancake. My first ever driving lesson was just before last Christmas. My mother arranged it, refusing to accept my refusals to do it. Thankfully she did arrange it for a tutor from her area and for when I would be visiting for the holid...

Employment At Record High In Scotland

Employment levels in Scotland during January to December 2016 reached a record high of 2,579,700, reflecting a huge improvement to the Scottish labour market. Scotland's Cheif Statistician published statistics on Regional Employment Patterns in Scotland from the Annual Population Survey on Tuesday. This publication presents annual estimates for a wide range of labour market indicators across local authority areas in Scotland for 2016. The report found that the employment level for men, aged 16 and over, has increased by 13,900 over the year and is at the highest level since 2008. While the youth unemployment rate decreased by 2.3% over the year, with the you employment rate also decreasing by 0.7%. Worryingly the trend reflected across the nation of pensioner workers has been reflected in the report, with the employment rate for people aged 65 and over increased from 5.2% in 2004 to 9.1% in 2016. Over half of workers over state pension age in Scotland said they has not ye...