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Going places at last
 
Work has begun along the five-mile route, including at Eglinton Street and at the Kingston Bridge, below
Work has begun along the five-mile route, including at Eglinton Street and at the Kingston Bridge, below
 
 
An archaeological dig tried to find out more about the tenements which used to be at the site
An archaeological dig tried to find out more about the tenements which used to be at the site
 

by Iain Lundy

IT looks just like any other building site. But the work going on in the small patch of land just off Eglinton Street in the South Side is the beginning of the end of 36 years of frustration for city motorists.

It is here that the first pier will be sunk in the long-awaited and controversial M74 motorway extension project.

The Port Eglinton Viaduct, which will carry traffic over the main West Coast rail line and Pollokshaws Road, will be one of the most striking bridges on the five-mile stretch of road - and as big as the Kingston Bridge.

If all goes to schedule, the £500million project will be completed in 2011 and the "missing link" in Scotland's roads network will be no more.

Once finished it will join the M8 at the Kingston Bridge with the Fullarton Roundabout at Auchen-
shuggle in Glasgow's East End - where the M74 currently ends.

Supporters of the new road claim it will plug a glaring gap and allow traffic to run much more smoothly as well as benefiting the economy.

But opponents have always felt it was needless and would cause social and environmental harm.

Drivers have been waiting since 1972 for the road to be completed to ease the traffic in Glasgow's South Side and through Rutherglen and Cambuslang.

The work in Eglinton Street - on a site bounded by Devon Street, Turriff Street and Mackinlay Street - is the start of construction of the Port Eglinton Viaduct.

When completed it will be one of 13 bridges over roads, railways and waterways built for the project.

Work has also started to clear and flatten land at Scotland Street, at the south end of the Kingston Bridge and there are also engineers in place at Farmeloan Road in the East End and Cathcart Road.

Transport Scotland said its teams have hit the ground running at a number of sites along the five-mile stretch.

Project director David Mustard said: "It is the largest construction site in the road network in Scotland at the moment.

"The target is to have it built by 2011 so we have a four-year construction period.

"There is recognisable work going on now because we have been doing site clearing and ground engineering work to consolidate old mine workings and foundations.

"At the Port Eglinton Viaduct we are putting in piles and foundations just now.

"We are working from both ends of the project and are hitting the ground on most of the length of the scheme at the moment.

"It really is a missing link. This will bring huge benefits not just to Glasgow but the whole of the west and south of Scotland."

Since the official start of construction in April there have been major topographical, drainage and ecological surveys carried out along the route.

An archaeological dig was conducted on the Eglinton Street site to discover more about the tenements and businesses which used to line the area.

Engineers and specialist teams have also carried out site investigations and cleared vegetation and redundant fencing.

Buildings have been demolished and a number of others are still to come down - although not the old St Andrews Printworks in Mackinlay Street, which is a listed building.

Businesses on the route have been relocated and three drainage outfalls to the River Clyde have been created.

As well as the 13 bridges, there will be four major road junctions built - at the Kingston Bridge, Polmadie Road, Cambuslang Road and Fullarton Road.

By the time the road is finished workers will have carried out 180,000 cubic metres of earthworks to excavate the route and a further 1.5million cubic metres to fill it.

The project includes 25,000 tonnes of steelwork fabrication and 15,474 tonnes of steel reinforcement.

Completion will require 64,985 cubic metres of structural concrete, 3629 cubic metres of concrete wall and 30,532 cubic metres of concrete roadworks.

The road surface will use 253,500 tonnes of low noise materials in a bid to cause minimal sound pollution to homes bordering the new route.


Rocky road for M-way extension

REACHING the building stage of the M74 extension has been anything but plain sailing.

Plans for the missing link' were first mooted in 1988 and finally approved in 1995.

Anti-road activists threatened to derail the project, with claims the road would harm the environment and lead to traffic chaos.

The main protest body - No M74 Group - was led by Rosie Kane, later a Scottish Socialist Party MSP.

There was even a group called Stop The Auchenshuggle Autobahn, which wanted the project scrapped.

In 2005 protesters set up camp in grassland between Eglinton Street and Pollokshaws Road.

Calling themselves Cre8, they opposed the extension and the G8 Summit at Gleneagles.

Before any work on the road began, Transport Scotland funded a £4.9million archaeological dig of the five-mile stretch.

The Eglinton Street site was dug up, unearthing an 1856 tenement called Rosehill and the remains of Abbotsford Parish Church.

It also unearthed the cobbled street of a cooperage and a farrier's shop far below the site of the existing roads.

At a public inquiry into the new route in 2003, Scottish Executive officials claimed Glasgow's economy would benefit by £4.4billion and 25,000 new jobs.

Publication date 29/09/08

Posted by: jkr, Lochwinnoch Greater Glasgow on 11:48am Mon 29 Sep 08
Good to see that the M74 extension is actually now happening.
Posted by: Meep, Shawlands on 11:50am Mon 29 Sep 08
I would like to know what Transport Scotland are going to do to get a city wide subway system built for the whole of glasgow and the West of Scotland. Although this extension is a neccessary evil it wont make any difference to glasgow transport or traffic. Transport Scotland justify your existence and get the Glasgow Metropolitan Subway construction started or get yourselves lobbied out of your cushy quango jobs that do nothing.
Posted by: The Missing City, Glasgow on 11:54am Mon 29 Sep 08
I'm pretty sure the same thing was said about the M8 back in the mid-70's - look at it now.

The streets of Glasgow have been slowly taken away, thus reducing the opportunity for business and residential opportunities.

New roads in the past 40 years have been built but feature nothing except bushes and concrete bollards.

Amazing vision we have here.

Thomson's Queens Park Terrace once filled the Eglinton Street part of this development, the bridge according to the writer seems to be a more attractive option - if only I took Acid and believed people travelled at light speed.

Maybe the builders will ensure they use the strongest type of concrete to ensure they don't introduce the problems on this bridge as with what we have seen with the Kingston Bridge since the early 90's, but thats what happens when you divert traffic all around Glasgow and choke the city centre.

We can only wait and see how this will all turn out, it was originally meant to go right through Laurieston - very space age in amongst the multi's - again, something from an LSD inspired trip.
Posted by: The Missing City, Glasgow on 12:03pm Mon 29 Sep 08
Meep wrote:
I would like to know what Transport Scotland are going to do to get a city wide subway system built for the whole of glasgow and the West of Scotland. Although this extension is a neccessary evil it wont make any difference to glasgow transport or traffic. Transport Scotland justify your existence and get the Glasgow Metropolitan Subway construction started or get yourselves lobbied out of your cushy quango jobs that do nothing.
Meep

You will be aware that Glasgow has a serious public transport allergy

In the late 50's it was envisaged that the tram was 'getting in the way' of the motor car and the railways looked as if it was something best kept to the Victorian ers

These clowns and their vision ruined us

Isn't it obvious?

JRK's comment you would expect from someone who doesn't live in the city

I bet somebody from the Gorbals for example probably won't share his opinion on the matter, but its only Glasgow - who gives a sh1t? haha
Posted by: The Missing City, Glasgow on 12:08pm Mon 29 Sep 08
ers???

Did 1 perhaps make an ers of that 1?

Thought I'd point out it was meant to say era but I guess most intelligent people will have realised that this is what it was meant to say even if a nd s are next to each other on the keyboard.

Slip of the finger, no deliberate spelling mistake unfortunately - thank you!
Posted by: Smooth Rider, Renfrewshire on 1:04pm Mon 29 Sep 08
Enviromentalists are to blame for the current state of the m8 And kingston bridge.
When the bridge and tunnel were built. a ring road was also planned round the city to join the M73 for south bound traffic. Enviromentalists kicked up a storm so they came to a compromise and the road was not built. Hence the problem with the bridge taking much more traffic than was anticipated and the subsequent structural problems that entailed.
So if any activists start campaigning against the road i suggest they check their history and will find it was their fault in the 1st place.
Posted by: jkr, Lochwinnoch Greater Glasgow on 1:10pm Mon 29 Sep 08
Meep. Lived in the South Side till 5 years ago and still care very much about what goes on in the city. The congestion on the Kingston Bridge is a major problem and will be greatly eased once the M74 extension is completed
Posted by: The Missing City, Glasgow on 1:23pm Mon 29 Sep 08
Smooth Rider wrote:
Enviromentalists are to blame for the current state of the m8 And kingston bridge. When the bridge and tunnel were built. a ring road was also planned round the city to join the M73 for south bound traffic. Enviromentalists kicked up a storm so they came to a compromise and the road was not built. Hence the problem with the bridge taking much more traffic than was anticipated and the subsequent structural problems that entailed. So if any activists start campaigning against the road i suggest they check their history and will find it was their fault in the 1st place.
Yes Smooth

There is a conflict here

The ET claimed a few years ago that the plan was shelved because they had no money to finish the job back in the day.

Of course environmentalists were complaining because Glasgow was being ripped apart.

40 years down the line - it appears they were correct, just recently we have saw incidents around the M8 perimeter, attacks and robberies in the underpasses and at St Georges Cross Subway Station.

Mind you if it weren't for the intervention of environmentalists in the first pace. the eastern edge of the city would have had no Royal Infirmary, no Barony Church, no Provands Lordship, no High Street and no Tolbooth Steeple with some removal of Glasgow Green.

NMaybe this would have been far better for Glasgow Smooth Rider, but alas, as you may be in Renfrewshire - it is pretty apparent that you would have been glad to see this part of Glasgow disappear under a sea of concrete.

Like I said earlier, its Glasgow - who gives a sh1t? The place is well gone, ruined and beyond repair.
Posted by: The Missing City, Glasgow on 1:31pm Mon 29 Sep 08
An M8 extension should be put through the centre of Edinburgh - good enough for Glasgow

A city by-pass should be built around Glasgow with motorways at the city edge - good enough for Edinburgh!
Posted by: paulthescot, Oman on 1:59pm Mon 29 Sep 08
Cars are a fact of life. We need them. So we need roads. Get the roads built.

It is called progress .

There needs to be an alternative to buses in Glasgow. This I agree will cost money. That is the only way to reduce the cars on the road and the subsequent road misery people have to endure daily.

The people that are in power in Glasgow for many decades have never had the foresight to see the way Glasgow needed to progress. Glasgow is a great city let down by all who reside in the council be it labour, tory or whatever party.

We need people of Glasgow to make Glasgow better. Presently we have people that are more interested in making there names in politics. Give us our great city back.
Posted by: The Missing City, Glasgow on 4:06pm Mon 29 Sep 08
paulthescot wrote:
Cars are a fact of life. We need them. So we need roads. Get the roads built. It is called progress . There needs to be an alternative to buses in Glasgow. This I agree will cost money. That is the only way to reduce the cars on the road and the subsequent road misery people have to endure daily. The people that are in power in Glasgow for many decades have never had the foresight to see the way Glasgow needed to progress. Glasgow is a great city let down by all who reside in the council be it labour, tory or whatever party. We need people of Glasgow to make Glasgow better. Presently we have people that are more interested in making there names in politics. Give us our great city back.
Awrite Paul

Yip - spot on - the whole place is a mess

To think Glasgow was full of roads the city centre was a constant weave of streets which took traffic into the Inner City and on to the roads going into the country

Now you would be lucky to have six routes on either side of the river to take traffic in and out of Glasgow - the rest have been stopped up due to re-development, the M8 and traffic mamagement schemes to counteract the domino effect of reducing roads in Glasgow whilst all through the past 40 years, car usage has increased resulting in city streets being constantly clogged as a result of the madness created as written above.

Glasgow is a mess and the bottom line is this M74 extension (or completion) will not reduce the traffic, maybe just a little bit on the M8 to save traffic coming up from the M74 and round Glasgow, but it won't be reduced much overall - can't see it, not with car ownership continuing to rise.

Posted by: Judas, Glasgow on 6:03pm Mon 29 Sep 08
This isn't a "£500million project" - it's a £692million project, as the Evening Times told us here in June:

http://www.eveningti
mes.co.uk/news/displ
ay.var.2360084.0.0.p
hp

Be nice if they did their research prior to going to print...

--
Posted by: George Brown, glasgow on 7:29pm Mon 29 Sep 08
I wonder at the enthusiatic response from 'Edinburghites' if it were decreed that a motorway link disecting Princes Street, north to south were required to ease conjestion on the ring roads
Posted by: youngchick, renfrew on 7:50pm Mon 29 Sep 08
Judas,you dont believe everthing that is printed in a newspaper, what a silly man.
Posted by: Graham Barrie, Glasgow on 8:06pm Mon 29 Sep 08
"The target is to have it built by 2011 so we have a four-year construction period.

As quoted in the papers.....

Think they need to go back to school before they start anything as to me that only gives them 3 yrs and as we are already at the end of this yr then that makes it 2... but then they will just cut corners and use the wrong materials ...

Anyway i never have a problem with traffic congestion as i have a motorbike so just sqeeze down the middle..... Happy motoring folks :D
Posted by: Smooth Rider, Renfrewshire on 1:29am Tue 30 Sep 08
The Missing City wrote:
Smooth Rider wrote: Enviromentalists are to blame for the current state of the m8 And kingston bridge. When the bridge and tunnel were built. a ring road was also planned round the city to join the M73 for south bound traffic. Enviromentalists kicked up a storm so they came to a compromise and the road was not built. Hence the problem with the bridge taking much more traffic than was anticipated and the subsequent structural problems that entailed. So if any activists start campaigning against the road i suggest they check their history and will find it was their fault in the 1st place.
Yes Smooth There is a conflict here The ET claimed a few years ago that the plan was shelved because they had no money to finish the job back in the day. Of course environmentalists were complaining because Glasgow was being ripped apart. 40 years down the line - it appears they were correct, just recently we have saw incidents around the M8 perimeter, attacks and robberies in the underpasses and at St Georges Cross Subway Station. Mind you if it weren't for the intervention of environmentalists in the first pace. the eastern edge of the city would have had no Royal Infirmary, no Barony Church, no Provands Lordship, no High Street and no Tolbooth Steeple with some removal of Glasgow Green. NMaybe this would have been far better for Glasgow Smooth Rider, but alas, as you may be in Renfrewshire - it is pretty apparent that you would have been glad to see this part of Glasgow disappear under a sea of concrete. Like I said earlier, its Glasgow - who gives a sh1t? The place is well gone, ruined and beyond repair.
MC
Go and check the archives of some of the main Glasgow newspapers from the time circa 1968.
Oh and i was born and brought up in Glasgow and have a great passion for the city.
What has robberies on the subway and attacks in underpasses got to do with a motorway anyway? The underground opened in 1896 and nothing to do with the M8 so Stop trying to use irrelevant things as excuses to validate your argument.
The only thing the enviromentalists done was postpone the inevital. It would have cost a hell of a lot less money also and we would not have half the problems we have now.
So stop talking utter bo**ocks!
Posted by: The Missing City, Glasgow on 8:37am Tue 30 Sep 08
What has robberies on the subway and attacks in underpasses got to do with a motorway anyway?

What would you know, you only drive on the thing, apparently, it seems you don't know anything thats connected with the motorway - especially around Charing and St George's Cross where such incidents have taken place.

What an ignorant tit you've made yourself out to be.

Go and check the archives of some of the main Glasgow newspapers from the time circa 1968.

Done that when I was 13 ya tit!
Posted by: The Missing City, Glasgow on 8:47am Tue 30 Sep 08
The Missing City wrote:
What has robberies on the subway and attacks in underpasses got to do with a motorway anyway? What would you know, you only drive on the thing, apparently, it seems you don't know anything thats connected with the motorway - especially around Charing and St George's Cross where such incidents have taken place. What an ignorant tit you've made yourself out to be. Go and check the archives of some of the main Glasgow newspapers from the time circa 1968. Done that when I was 13 ya tit!
And while yer at it, go and check out the Greater Glasgow Highways and Transportation (or lack of it) Plan from 1965, as well as the thousands of other maps, plans and documents from the 50's through to the 90's - if you can tell me about the old newspapers, then you will have no problem finding the other stuff.

You want to assume that everybody you speak to is a retarded fcuk, then you may get backlash for your efforts, like I just did.

Think before you speak, you'll find may get on with others a bit better.
Posted by: Smooth Rider, Renfrewshire on 11:19am Tue 30 Sep 08
The Missing City wrote:
The Missing City wrote: What has robberies on the subway and attacks in underpasses got to do with a motorway anyway? What would you know, you only drive on the thing, apparently, it seems you don't know anything thats connected with the motorway - especially around Charing and St George's Cross where such incidents have taken place. What an ignorant tit you've made yourself out to be. Go and check the archives of some of the main Glasgow newspapers from the time circa 1968. Done that when I was 13 ya tit!
And while yer at it, go and check out the Greater Glasgow Highways and Transportation (or lack of it) Plan from 1965, as well as the thousands of other maps, plans and documents from the 50's through to the 90's - if you can tell me about the old newspapers, then you will have no problem finding the other stuff. You want to assume that everybody you speak to is a retarded fcuk, then you may get backlash for your efforts, like I just did. Think before you speak, you'll find may get on with others a bit better.
Mungo
You still havent answered my question. What do these incidents have to do with a motorway??
Posted by: The Missing City, Glasgow on 11:25am Tue 30 Sep 08
Smooth Rider wrote:
The Missing City wrote:
The Missing City wrote: What has robberies on the subway and attacks in underpasses got to do with a motorway anyway? What would you know, you only drive on the thing, apparently, it seems you don't know anything thats connected with the motorway - especially around Charing and St George's Cross where such incidents have taken place. What an ignorant tit you've made yourself out to be. Go and check the archives of some of the main Glasgow newspapers from the time circa 1968. Done that when I was 13 ya tit!
And while yer at it, go and check out the Greater Glasgow Highways and Transportation (or lack of it) Plan from 1965, as well as the thousands of other maps, plans and documents from the 50's through to the 90's - if you can tell me about the old newspapers, then you will have no problem finding the other stuff. You want to assume that everybody you speak to is a retarded fcuk, then you may get backlash for your efforts, like I just did. Think before you speak, you'll find may get on with others a bit better.
Mungo You still havent answered my question. What do these incidents have to do with a motorway??
Plenty, the motorway has clogged the place up and the underpasses associated with it are a magnet for hideoyus criminal activity

Do you read papers? Why do you ignore that fact?

Socirty including journalists must be Mongol's as well for reporting that stuff

And people who live in amongst it must be Mongol's as well

Who gives a stuff? As long as you get to drive your car, thats all that matters in your selfish life.
Posted by: The Missing City, Glasgow on 11:27am Tue 30 Sep 08
And Mungo was the patron Saint of this City - Let Glasgow Florish by the preaching of thy word and name and all that boll0cks

Flourish, more like decay. The M8 is a Cancer
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