HI HO HI HO IT’S OFF TO
THAT’S GR8, M8 STATE-OF-THE-ART NEW ROAD Shorter journey times for commuters as missing motorway link is completed
IT TOOK three years, hundreds of thousands of hours of hard graft and an awful lot of traffic jams.
But Scotland’s shiny new “main street” is finally ready, and commuters will soon be using it to get to work faster.
Bosses at Transport Scotland say the seven-mile stretch of motorway that plugs the “missing link” on the M8 will cut nearly 20 minutes off the rush-hour drive from Glasgow to Edinburgh.
The westbound carriageway will open without fanfare on Sunday, April 23, with the eastbound side following a week later.
The work, which involved 15 new bridges and 35,000 tons of steel, is coming in on budget and five days ahead of schedule.
SNP Economy Secretary Keith Brown visited the site yesterday and congratulated the workers.
He said: “Scotland’s main street is now complete.
“It means that for the first time, the road between Edinburgh and Glasgow is motorway the whole way. There are now 60 miles of motorway from Edinburgh right through to Greenock.
“It’s tremendous news. The capacity on the road has dramatically increased, improving business links and reducing journey times.”
The new M8 between Glasgow’s Baillieston and Newhouse in Lanarkshire is a vital part of a huge £500million project to improve the motorway network around Scotland’s biggest city.
The rest of the work, including the massive project at the Raith Interchange on the M74, should be finished by the end of spring.
Drivers have endured years of delays and misery since the work began in February 2014, with the M8 closed for 10 weeks in February this year so the new road could be finished off.
But Brown insisted it would all be worth it. He said: “Substantial disruption was inevitable on a project of this size.
“That is now coming to an end. Once the M8 opens, other roads will follow and the disruption will finish.”
Graeme Reid of Transport Scotland said drivers on the nation’s busiest motorway wouldn’t see the full benefits until all the junctions and roads affected by the project were open.
But he added: “Commuters between Edinburgh and Glasgow should experience a vast improvement to their journeys.”
To check progress as the roadworks are wound up, go to transportscotland.gov.scot