A88
From Roader's Digest: The SABRE Wiki
| A88 | |||
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| From: | Larbert (NS851834) | ||
| To: | Stenhousemuir (NS851834) | ||
| Length: | 3.5 miles (5.6 km) | ||
| Meets: | M876, A9, A905 | ||
| Former Number(s): | A876, A977 | ||
| Highways Authorities | |||
| Traditional Counties | |||
For the original A88, a road that linked Inverness to Scrabster, near Thurso, and is now part of the A9 among other routes,, see A88 (Inverness - Scrabster)
Intro
Britain's shortest two-digit road must surely be the A88, which runs for less than three miles near Stenhousemuir, north of Falkirk. To add to the infamy, it's in the wrong zone, since it connects the A9 with the A905.
How did this come about? Was the A88 originally a longer road of which only this section remains?
Route
The A88 Bellsdyke Road starts at the North Broomage Roundabout on the A9—but to really understand the road as it exists now, you should start back at Junction 2 on the M876.
In 1965, the new A876 dual carriageway ended at North Broomage. The A876 dual carriageway was upgraded to M876 motorway in 1974, and extended eastwards, on a completely new line, in 1980. The present M876 spur at Junction 2 connects the older, western part of the motorway with the stub end of its original route.
Eastbound, junction 2 is a perfectly normal exit, with a long right hand bend over the 1980 motorway, and a slightly sharper left hand bend back onto the original line. The hard shoulder on the slip road ends abruptly where the road regains its original path. This would suggest that when the western part of the A876 was upgraded to motorway, hard shoulders were not included as part of the package. (The sections of both the M876 and the M80 which were upgraded in 1974 still don't have continuous hard shoulders.)
Westbound traffic from the roundabout follows the original A876 carriageway until it joins the motorway. Again, there's no hard shoulder along the original dual carriageway; it only starts after the merge with the 1980 motorway. Although the former eastbound carriageway was directly alongside what's now the westbound slip, it was grassed over and is now covered by dense undergrowth. The OS Landranger map shows an unusually wide cutting on the westbound slip road, but this can't be seen from the road itself.
One curious anomaly with the start of the motorway spur is that it's crossed by a pedestrian footpath—well past the 'Start of motorway' sign, but just before the 70 signs. There's even a paved section across the central reservation! Obviously the footpath was built with the original dual-carriageway, and never changed when the road became motorway.
The North Broomage Roundabout was built at the same time as the dual carriageway. The roundabout takes its name from the hamlet immediately to the northwest, and a short stretch of former A9 remains as a cul-de-sac to the west of the roundabout. The roundabout has five arms: the fifth, to the northeast, may actually be slightly later than the rest of the roundabout, and can be used for parking. The roundabout island and all the surrounding verges are neatly planted out—including some distance down the motorway spur.
East of the A9, the A88 Bellsdyke Road is a normal wide single carriageway. The first 350 metres was built with the dual carriageway, and has a broad landscaped verge on the north side. The original line of the A876 is now Old Bellsdyke Road, a residential road with access off the A9. The 'new' stretch of road ends at a roundabout for business parks on the north side and an access to Larbert on the south.
The A88 continues eastwards as a broad single carriageway, crossing the railway and passing through another modern roundabout - access to Stenhousemuir to the south and a recent housing estate to the north. For the next mile or so, the A88 has little to distinguish it from any other 1930s suburban road. There's housing fronting onto the road on both sides, some of it with service roads, and open spaces for hospital grounds, a golf course, and open parkland. The speed limit along this stretch is 40 mph. It's one of the broadest single-carriageway roads I've seen, with five lanes in places, one lane each way for through traffic, a turn lane in the centre, and either auxiliary lanes or parking lanes along either edge.
After the roundabout for the B902, the character of the road changes—it moves from town to countryside, and the speed limit changes to NSL. To the south there are open fields, with just a wire fence alongside the road allowing views over the crops.
In contrast, the north side of the road is bordered by a high stone wall with mature parkland beyond. The slightly irregular line of the wall obviously follows the edge of the narrow lane which was upgraded to form the present road in the 1930s. The wall marks the landscaped grounds of Kinnaird House, with the upgraded road kept just outside the historic gardens. (Just 40 years later, the new M9 and M876 would slice right through the gardens—passing just 20 metres from the house itself.)
The next feature on the A88 is the rise over the M9 motorway. Between 1968 and 1980, this marked the western terminus of the M9, with the motorway ending at a roundabout on what was then the A876 (numbered as Junction 7). The A88 now crosses the M9 on an embankment and bridge, with the motorway in a shallow cutting underneath. There's no obvious trace of the roundabout. Cresting the bridge, the massive Longannet Power Station can be seen on the far side of the Forth, and to the east, the flares of the Grangemouth refinery complex light up the sky.
Three-quarters of a mile after the bridge over the M9, the A88 ends at a roundabout on the A905. To the north, the A905 is dual carriageway as far as the A876/M876 roundabout—a 'traditional-style' dual carriageway with NSL and no barriers in the central reservation. To the south, it's a narrow single carriageway, passing through the small village of Skinflats and leading to the town of Grangemouth. From the A88, the A905 is signposted northbound only, with all traffic for Grangemouth being diverted north and onto the motorways. Southbound is only signposted for local traffic to Skinflats, with the road unnumbered. There's a 7.5 tonne weight restriction on the A905 between the A88 roundabout and the eastbound exit from the M9 at J6, and extensive traffic calming in the village of Skinflats would seriously hinder large vehicles tring to take a short cut to the refineries at Grangemouth.
History
The road which is now the A88 is shown on the 1865 Ordnance Survey map, as an insignificant little lane.
However, in 1936, it suddenly became a full A-class road, leading to the new Forth Bridge at Kincardine. On maps through to about 1946, it's numbered as A977, leading through to Kinross. The continuation west of the A9 is the B817 from Larbert (now the B905) leading to the A803 and A80. Interestingly, the route from the bridge to the A80 is already shown as a Trunk Road on the 1946 OS 10-mile map, although still with the B-class number. In fact, the Trunk Roads Act 1946 created the Dennyloanhead - Kincardine - Kircaldy - St Andrews Trunk Road, and includes a detailed description of its route; it changed road number about 15 times en route.
The earliest I can trace the A876 number is a 1953 Atlas from OUP, with confirmation on the 1956 OS 10-mile map. I would guess that an increasing amount of traffic between the bridge and Glasgow justified a single route number connecting the A80 to the bridge, incorporating parts of A803, B917, A883, A977 and A905. Why a new A876 number, extending east of the A9, would have been chosen instead of the existing A977 number, extending west of the A9, I cannot say. (Perhaps the B817 was reclassified as A876 first, and it was then a toss of a coin which would be extended over the other.)
The A876 west of Larbert was changed considerably over the years, with a new A80 dual carriageway about 1962-3 and a matching A876 dual carriageway about 1964-5. Both later became motorway: the A80 upgraded to M80 in 1973, and the A876 becoming M876 about two years later. The eastern terminus of the A876 dual carriageway (and later of the M876) is now the M876 slip road at J2.
To the east, there was even more change. By 1969, the M9 had been opened between J4 (A801) and J7 (then a roundabout on the A876). In addition to its own bridge traffic, the A876 was also carrying all the traffic to and from the M9. Most would be switching between the M9 and the A9 at Larbert, although undoubtedly some motorists would prefer to go north on the A905 instead.
So, by the mid 1970s, the three-mile single carriageway section of A876 was carrying the full traffic load of two motorways! Extension of both M9 and M876 to fill the gaps had long been a priority - ghost ramps under the roundabout at M9 J9 had been completed as early as 1973 - but it was not until 1980 that the two new motorways were fully opened.
With the M876 continuing right through to the roundabout at the end of the Forth Bridge, the former A876 through Larbert and Stenhousemuir would be in dire need of a new number:
1. It would perhaps make sense to some people for a 8xx route number to be replaced with a new 8xx route number.
(It doesn't make sense to me! And it forgets that the road was first classified as A977!)
2. The traffic using the A876 was easily enough to justify a two digit number, but none of the 9x numbers were available - but A88 was.
(Ignore the simple fact that most of the heavy traffic would soon be using the new motorways instead!)
3. With the M9 opening right through, it was expected that the old A9 would be renumbered or declassified, as had happened very quickly when the M9 had been opened east of J4. With no A9, the M9 would become the new zone boundary, leaving the new A88 running mainly in zone 8.
(20 years after the M9 opened right through, the A9 still runs through Falkirk and Stirling. I don't know why.)
Result: A88. Anyone got better ideas?
Original Author(s): Guy & David D. Miller
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