M8 Completion Approved

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gchree
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M8 Completion Approved

Post by gchree »

PRESS RELEASE
December 14, 2010
Green light for A8 Upgrade
The Scottish Government has decided to proceed with the completion of the M8 between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth John Swinney today gave the go ahead for the upgrade to motorway status of the A8 Baillieston to Newhouse stretch after considering the findings and recommendations of the public local inquiry.
The upgrade will complete the motorway between Edinburgh and Glasgow and bring benefits for businesses, motorists and the environment.
As the Finance Secretary made clear in his recent draft budget statement it is intended to procure the M8 Baillieston to Newhouse upgrade together with improvements to the M74 Raith Interchange and M8/M73/M74 Network Improvements as part of a new funding pipeline under the NPD model.
Finance Secretary John Swinney said:
"The M8 is a key section of Scotland's strategic road network, linking Scotland's two biggest cities and connecting businesses and communities. Having given careful consideration to the issues and arguments, I agree with the Reporter's findings and reasoning, and with his recommendation to proceed with the long awaited upgrade to motorway status of the A8 stretch between Baillieston and Newhouse.
"Along with the M74 Completion scheme and the M80 Stepps to Haggs, which are both programmed to be completed next year, this upgrade will complete the Scottish motorway network.
"By procuring this scheme together with the improvements to the M74 Raith Interchange and the M74 Raith Interchange and M8/M73/M74 Network Improvements as part of a new funding pipeline under the NPD model, we intend to provide best value for the public purse and reduce overall disruption during construction.
"Subject to completing the necessary statutory process, it is hoped to start procurement in 2011-12. However, the Orders need to be approved by Parliament and assuming that is given, we would then need to review the combined scheme before issuing a definitive timetable."
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A303Chris
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by A303Chris »

Good news, but an interesting statement
" this upgrade will complete the Scottish motorway network"
So when finished that will be that. No M77 all the way to Ayr, or other improvements
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cb a1
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by cb a1 »

A303Chris wrote:Good news, but an interesting statement
" this upgrade will complete the Scottish motorway network"
So when finished that will be that. No M77 all the way to Ayr, or other improvements
That's it (for motorways) in the current lists and future lists of road infrastructure improvements through to 2022.
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WHBM
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by WHBM »

As this section starts with the 2-lane M8 from Edinburgh leading into a 2-lane high quality dual carriageway, with all junctions grade separated, then leading on into the urban section of the M8 on the Glasgow outskirts, I am wondering what, apart from the provision of hard shoulders (which not all Scottish motorways have anyway) is going to be such a significant improvement here.
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Truvelo
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by Truvelo »

WHBM wrote:As this section starts with the 2-lane M8 from Edinburgh leading into a 2-lane high quality dual carriageway, with all junctions grade separated, then leading on into the urban section of the M8 on the Glasgow outskirts, I am wondering what, apart from the provision of hard shoulders (which not all Scottish motorways have anyway) is going to be such a significant improvement here.
It's not hard shoulders that need adding but an extra lane. An upgrade to D2M won't make a scrap of difference IMO. There's no excuse for not widening it as the new bridges, especially the one at Eurocentral, are wide enough to take extra lanes.
How would you like your grade separations, Sir?
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GrahamP
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by GrahamP »

The last plan I saw was to turn it into a quadruple carriageway, with the inner two being motorway and the outer two being all-purpose. So that'd make at least a doubling of capacity.
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parristim
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by parristim »

The existing D2AP is pretty substandard - narrow and bumpy with very short slips at some of the junctions. You always notice a 'smoothing' of traffic when the motorway re-starts headed Eastbound. The upgrade should help traffic flow a bit - although not as much as an extra lane would. I thought part of the (offline) upgrade was planned to be D3M?
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wrinkly
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by wrinkly »

The proposed M8 is
- a mixture of D2M, D3M and D4M,
- partly online, partly off,
- with fewer junctions than at present;

with a parallel D2 AP, partly online, partly off, partly grade separated.

Where the motorway is offline and the D2AP is online, the latter will doubtless keep the hard shoulders that were added to the A8 about 5-6 years ago. Offline sections of D2AP will presumably be without hard shoulders.

At the east end of the scheme it becomes four 2-lane motorway carriageways bridging over Newhouse roundabout, which is enlarged northward and southward to fit.

plan of west section

plan of east section
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novaecosse
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by novaecosse »

I had a feeling the Scottish Government would push out some good news :lol:
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Keiji
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by Keiji »

wrinkly wrote:plan of east section
Well, that dumbbell is silly. Everything but its sliproads can be done without - i.e. just remove the two roundabouts and bridge, and link up the three slips each side to the appropriate other roundabout.
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nirs
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by nirs »

Keiji wrote:
wrinkly wrote:plan of east section
Well, that dumbbell is silly. Everything but its sliproads can be done without - i.e. just remove the two roundabouts and bridge, and link up the three slips each side to the appropriate other roundabout.
It's probably like that for a number of reasons, including:
• You'd have inconsistent curve radii which would be dangerous. Roundabouts can be used to introduce tighter turns.
• You have two entrances into the north roundabout on the western side. Without the roundabout you would have to find another way to merge these two flows of traffic safely.

I agree though that it does look a little unusual. You could perhaps better argue that the longer bridge to the east of the dumbell is redundant although it does provide a nice way to bypass the junction.
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Truvelo
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by Truvelo »

I agree with Keiji, the two roundabouts closest together can be removed and the two furthest roundabouts would be the dumbbell. This would make the C/D roads freeflow. I don't think the radii would be excessively tight. As it stands there are too many entry/exits at the two closest roundabouts and everything except M8 through traffic and north/south traffic will have to use them so I expect full time traffic lights will be installed when queues start forming.

The next junction to the west, Eurocentral, also has the problem of several entry/exit points at the roundabouts. A bit of tweaking could make the old A8 freeflow onto the C/D roads and remove this traffic from the two roundabouts. Also, traffic to/from the east wanting to use Eurocental has to use the junction to the east further putting pressure on the roundabouts at that junction.

I have to say that considering all the complexities of the proposed scheme there should be a lot more freeflow for the parallel C/D roads than planned.
How would you like your grade separations, Sir?
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m80
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by m80 »

Full details of the new road can be found in this report at section 3: http://www.m8completion.co.uk/m8/files/ ... 0Final.pdf
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by m80 »

Worth noting that this project also includes the M8/M73/M74 Network Improvements which involves adding additional running lanes at the following locations:
• Eastbound M8 from Junction 10, Easterhouse to Junction 8, Baillieston Interchange.
• Northbound and southbound carriageways of the M73 between
Baillieston Interchange and Maryville Interchange.
• Northbound and southbound carriageways of the M74 from east of
Junction 2, Carmyle to Junction 5, Raith.
• Southbound carriageway of the M74 between Junction 5, Raith and
Junction 6, Hamilton.
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si404
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by si404 »

m80 wrote:Worth noting that this project also includes the M8/M73/M74 Network Improvements which involves adding additional running lanes at the following locations:
• Northbound and southbound carriageways of the M73 between
Baillieston Interchange and Maryville Interchange.
Would this actually be needed, post-M74 extension and A725 upgrades? Surely you'd take the A725-M74 or the M8 if doing Edi-Paisley and there's already dedicated lanes on the M73 for the M8 west.

I'd imagine the two 2-2 splits that close together would be nasty if you widen it. At least with three lanes, it's less crazy.
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wrinkly
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by wrinkly »

si404 wrote:Would this actually be needed, post-M74 extension and A725 upgrades?
I believe the "M8/M73/M74 network improvements" and the M74 Raith junction improvement both resulted from a study specifically intended to identify locations where, if the M8 Baillieston-Newhouse went ahead, adverse knock-on effects would occur unless further schemes were carried out.

Whilst I know nothing of the detailed arguments for individual improvements, I imagine this study would have been based on the assumption that the M74 (and M80 if relevant) completion would go ahead.
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by cb a1 »

wrinkly wrote:
si404 wrote:Would this actually be needed, post-M74 extension and A725 upgrades?
I believe the "M8/M73/M74 network improvements" and the M74 Raith junction improvement both resulted from a study specifically intended to identify locations where, if the M8 Baillieston-Newhouse went ahead, adverse knock-on effects would occur unless further schemes were carried out.

Whilst I know nothing of the detailed arguments for individual improvements, I imagine this study would have been based on the assumption that the M74 (and M80 if relevant) completion would go ahead.
Yes the M74 and M80 were assumed to be going ahead. See page 2-4 and 2-5.

Unfortunately I wasn't involved much in this study; only doing some of the initial base traffic model development. By the time they got to this part I was working on other projects, so I'm afraid that I can't provide any more detailed explanations for why these improvements came about.
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Gav
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by Gav »

This is a substantial committment to the roads in Scotland. Id have made my own improvements to what is proposed with the A8 / M8 as I still dont think it meets with providing a good traffic flow. Id have liked the A8 to come on to the M8 and run as a C/D system until junction 6. This would provide seperation of long distance and local traffic and still provide a smooth flow for the A8 rather than having these carriageways go round two dumbell junctions. The bridge at euro central is enough to run four carriageways under so why not ? The junctions being modified to give access from the M8 to the CD east bound. Enough signage would be given to indicate that the junction layout would require a decision on use of the cd or mainline depending on eventual destination.
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wrinkly
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by wrinkly »

Something described as a "summary" of the public inquiry report is now online here. Though called a summary it's >100 pages long and seems to me to be about as detailed as the unabbreviated reports I've read of other road inquiries.

The first five pages are genuinely a summary so maybe the heading of that has got mistakenly attached to the whole file.

The decision letter doesn't seem to be online.

According to an answer in the Scottish Parliament some time ago, the inquiry report was received by ministers in Oct 2008. Is 26 months a record for a decision on a scheme after receipt of the inquiry report?
cb a1
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Re: M8 Completion Approved

Post by cb a1 »

wrinkly wrote:Is 26 months a record for a decision on a scheme after receipt of the inquiry report?
As in "that's really fast" or "that's really slow"?
Education makes the wise slightly wiser, but it makes the fool vastly more dangerous. N. Taleb
We tend to demand impossible standards of proof from our opponents but accept any old rubbish to support our beliefs.
The human paradox that is common sense
The Backfire Effect
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