A80

The A80 that survives today is the bypassed rump of what was once the most important route north east out of Glasgow to Stirling and beyond. Progressively bypassed by the M80 since the 1960s, today's A80 is a busy urban route which seems to almost peter out without actually going anywhere.

Route

Glasgow – Crowwood

Junction of A8 and A80

From the SW, the A80 leaves the A8 in the east end of Glasgow at the corner of Alexandra Park, and strikes North East along Cumbernauld Road. It begins as a dual carriageway, running between car dealerships and areas of parkland before entering Riddrie, one of Glasgow's vast suburban areas. A short parade of shops stands opposite a church, but otherwise the roadside is just long rows of interwar suburban housing. The central reservation ends by the shops, but four lanes remain, the nearside lane often blocked by parked cars as the route is nowhere near as busy as it once was. A couple of small areas of parkland open up on the left, and then the grounds of a school sit on the right, with Barlinnie prison in behind.

The M8 is met at Junction 12, giving an indirect connection to the M80, traffic lights controlling the junctions either side, with the A80 passing over the motorway in between. A third signalised junction gives access to the northern part of the B765, which has come in from the east alongside the motorway. The road then remains S4 in width as it passes between a golf course and cemetery, but it's actually been downgraded to become two lane plus a cycle lane in recent years. Housing resumes on the left before the route curves past Hogganfield Loch and its surrounding parkland. This is the eastern end of a large area of parkland and nature reserves which stretch eastwards to the edge of Coatbridge, and are collectively known as the Seven Lochs Wetland Park.

The A80 kinks right at a junction with Royston Road and then continues along Cumbernauld Road to reach Millerston, the western end of Stepps. Most of the town lies north of the A80, but after passing playing fields a modern housing estate has been built on the right. There is no real town centre - just a small supermarket and a couple of scattered shops. After crossing a railway bridge, Stepps proper is entered with short rows of shops on either side. Although the width between buildings remains wide enough to carry 4 lanes of traffic, the actual carriageway through Steps has again been narrowed down to to two lanes, with wide tree-lined pavements and short parking bays on either side. A footbridge from the days before the motorway opened survives, and looks rather under-used these days!

At the further end of Stepps, the route suddenly opens out into a full dual carriageway again, passing a large industrial area on the right, with modern housing and strips of woodland on the left. This leads to the Crowwood roundabout, once claimed to be Scotland's busiest, and the previous end of the southern section of the M80. The road to the left, the A806, was the through route from the incomplete M80 and so the road ahead was primary and the main road to Stirling, explaining why it is dual carriageway beyond here. Since the completion of the M80, the roundabout is somewhat quieter than it used to be and the traffic lights are retained for peak use only.

Crowwood - Mollinsburn

The next section of the A80 is a modern bypass dual carriageway, as would be expected for a route only relieved by the M80 completion in 2011. It continues northeast, across fields and past a golf course to the first of two junctions with the A752. This still retains traffic lights, although they no longer produce a serious hold up like they used to. The dual carriageway then bypasses Muirhead and Chryston, crossing over the A752 midway, and meeting it again at the far end of the bypass. The eastern junction has never had lights, but was always full access with a central reservation gap that must have been almost inaccessible at times.

Approaching the crossroads at Mollinsburn from the south east

A few fields then remain before Moodiesburn is reached. Here a modern housing estate has been built with direct access to the A80 since it was bypassed. Again, most of the town lies to the north of the dual carriageway, accessed from a traffic-light-controlled crossroads. Cumbernauld Road then continues as a southern bypass, with houses just through the trees to the left, to reach a roundabout at the further end of Moodiesburn. This is part of the new Mollinsburn Interchange, where the A80 meets the M80 for the first, and only time, and also the M73. The roundabout marks the end of the dual carriageway, and provides sliproads on and off the eastbound carriageway of the M73. The A80 then continues ahead to a signalised crossroads, where the road from Moodiesburn comes in from the left, while the other three arms are all the A80.

Ahead, a short spur of the A80 continues to the M80, although there are only west facing slips, connection to the eastern part of the M80 is provided via the M73. Both of these junctions are signalised, with the unclassified road ahead leading into the vast Westfield industrial area of Cumbernauld. The longer arm of the A80 turns right at the crossroads and crosses the M73 to reach Mollinsburn itself. Here a small roundabout connects to the eastbound carriageway of the M73, while a minor road leads through Mollinsburn and on towards Cumbernauld.

History and Opening Dates

Charged with linking Scotland's largest city to one of its most historic, the Glasgow to Stirling A80 formed one side of the central Scotland triangle with the A8, A9, making Edinburgh its third point. For all three routes, their own success has been their downfall as all have required a motorway replacement and over a fifty-year period have been progressively surpassed by their M-titled replacements. The A80 still retained a ten-mile trunked stretch between two disjointed lengths of M80 until those ends were finally tied together in 2011.

A80 historic route from 1922/3 numbering

The M80 replacement came in three roughly equal stretches; Haggs to Stirling (1974), Glasgow to Stepps (1992), then Stepps to Haggs (2011). While the first section of motorway built caused a the old A80 to be renumbered as the A872, and the third obliterated the all-purpose route altogether, the nineties upgrade didn't remove the parallel A80 from the maps. What remains then is a seven mile stub from Riddrie, eastern Glasgow, via Stepps and Moodiesburn, to the far south-western corner of Cumbernauld.

As originally classified in 1922, the A80 started a lot further into Glasgow's city centre, at Glasgow Cross. From there it headed north along High Street and Castle Street, passing the Cathedral to reach Townhead Cross, now completely lost under the motorway interchange. It turned east here onto Alexandra Parade, before becoming Cumbernauld Road and therefore picking up its current route. This initial section was lost in the early 1930s when the A8 was re-routed along the new Glasgow - Edinburgh Road, usurping several other routes in the process.

The old A80 (now A872) crossing Denny Bridge

At the other end, the route obviously continued past Mollinsburn to reach Stirling. Indeed, one of the draft proposals from the renumberings of the mid 1930s would have seen the A80 extended east of Stirling along the entire route of the A91 to St Andrews. The suggestion has 'Agreed' noted in the margin, but was never subsequently carried through. The A80 therefore originally ran along Mollinsburn Main Road, and then after a short section now buried under the motorway it almost immediately deviated again onto Main Road through Dalshannon and Condorrat. This continued ahead onto the M80 line rather than curving round the Condorrat Ring Road. The original alignment appears again as Old Glasgow Road, now a long dead end leading west out of Cumbernauld Village.

After passing through Cumbernauld Village, the old A80 is now briefly the A8011, before cutting across the south east corner of Old Inns Junction to become the B816. The old road has been almost entirely lost through Castlecary Junction, but then reappears as Cumbernauld Road to the east of the motorway, crossing the canal and passing to the south of Haggs. It then briefly multiplexed with the A803 from Longcroft to Dennyloanhead, before heading north along the now-A872, through Denny, continuing north along Glasgow Road where the A872 deviates onto the towns relief road, to meet the A9 just south of Stirling at St Ninians.

Early Dualling

In the early 1950s authorisation was given for the provision of dual carriageways from Glasgow City Boundary to a point north of Denny both on the line of the existing road and by means of diversions around built up areas. This was constructed as follows:

Year	Section	Notes
1955	Glasgow City Boundary to Cardowen Road, Stepps	The 1.1 mile online dualling of Cumbernauld Road was completed in October 1955 per the 1957 Scottish Roads Report.. It was a divided 44 foot carriageway since the original road was well built up and there was limited space.
1956	Cardowen Road, Stepps to Muirhead	The 1.25 mile online dualling of Cumbernauld Road was opened in February 1956 per the 1957 Scottish Roads Report.
1959	Muirhead to Mollinsburn	The 2.25 mile online dualling of Cumbernauld Road north-east from Bedlay Lodge was completed in the 15 months to 31 March 1960 per the 1959-60 Scottish Roads Report. It was described as nearly completed in the 1958 Report.
1960	Muirhead Diversion	The 0.85 mile dual carriageway bypass was opened to traffic in the 15 months to 31 March 1961 per the 1960-61 Scottish Roads Report. The 1959-60 Report had given a completion due date of the end of September 1960. It may have opened in 1961.
1964	Denny Bypass	Castlecary to north of Dunipace. The scheme was listed as Haggs to north of Dunipace, but from the distance stated it would appear to have continued to Castlecary. One carriageway was to open in 3 or 4 weeks time per Hansard of 15 June 1964, with both carriageways open by October 1964. Opened in July 1964 per the 1964 Scottish Development Department Report 4.68 mile dual carriageway. Cost £2.01 million. Later became part of M80.
1964	Cumbernauld Bypass	Opened in July 1964 per the 1964 Scottish Development Department Report. Works would appear to have continued since it was described as virtually completed at the year end. Later became part of M80.
1965	Cumbernauld (west of) - Castlecary	The 3.4 mile dual carriageway was completed in 1965 per the 1965 Scottish Development Department Report. From the distance it would appear to have started from the east end of the online dualling section. Cost £1.2 million. Later became part of M80.

Motorway conversion and construction

The first part of the A80 to be replaced by motorway was north of the Castlecary Viaduct. Here, the existing A80 dual carriageway (which had opened in 1964) from J7 Haggs Junction to Ingliston, 1 mile north of Dunipace, was upgraded to M80 on 22 May 1974. This section had originally met the old A80 alignment at a roundabout at Ingliston, but this connection was removed, and replaced by a new section of the M80. This was constructed offline, but roughly parallel to the old A80 and stretched from Ingliston to Pirnhall Interchange, where it meets the M9. The A872 number was resurrected at this point and applied to the old A80, albeit with the A803 taking over the former multiplexed section in its own right.

Fifteen years later, in 1989, work began on the southern section of the M80, which was built on a completely new alignment with no connection to the old A80 at the southern end. This was completed in 1992 and opened to traffic on 8th June that year, but the northern end was a bit of a bodge as the route between the two sections of the M80 had not been finalised. The new motorway therefore had a junction with the B757 at Hornshill Junction, before curving round to meet the old A80 at Crowwood Roundabout. This last section is now thw A806. Traffic then continued along the dualled A80 as described above until 2011 when the motorway was finally completed. This included a new northern bypass for Muirhead and Chryston, with Mollinsburn to Haggs upgraded on line.

Before the extension of the M80 the old Mollinsburn Interchange was a simple fork where the M73 turned off the A80. This was located near the western roundabout of the current junction, and so the M73 has actually been extended over a short section of the former A80 to reach the new M80 section. Immediately after the Mollinsburn interchange was another interchange serving the western suburbs of the new town of Cumbernauld. Another limited access interchange with the A8011 dual carriageway through Cumbernauld, the main part of which sat up on a hill while the A80 passed below.

Shortly after, what was once the congestion-inducing Auchenkilns roundabout was reached, where the B8048 to Kirkintilloch and the once important A73 south to Airdrie (at one time the A73's primary destination was Carlisle) meet. This roundabout was grade-separated in 2005, ahead of the rest of the route, allowing traffic to flow much more freely. Then the road seemed to get better (though still two lane dual), and at this point heading north the flow of traffic normally improved. Another interchange (almost a cloverleaf) saw the A8011 rejoin from Cumbernauld; after this the A80 descended under the Edinburgh-Glasgow railway viaduct, with an arch for each carriageway, at Castlecary, then past a turnoff for the B816 and the UFO capital of Bonnybridge, and across the brand new bridge over the revitalised Forth and Clyde Canal.

Upgrade works on the old A80 in 2009

There was a slight incline past Banknock to a slip road for the A803 at what was junction 4 of the M80 and that marked the 1970s eastern terminus of the A80.

Stepps - Haggs motorway replacement

Construction began on the M80 Stepps to Haggs project in 2009 and was completed in 2011. This scheme consisted of three sections:

• Stepps to Mollinsburn: 8 km of new offline D2M, diverging from the existing M80 at Hornshill Junction and joining the route of the A80 at Mollinsburn
• Mollinsburn to Auchenkilns: the upgrading of 2.7 km of the present A80 to D3M from Mollinsburn to the western side of the new Auchenkilns Junction
• Auchenkilns to Haggs - the upgrading of 7.3 km of the A80 to D2M to meet up with the M80 at Haggs. Includes a climbing lane between Castlecary and Haggs on the eastbound carriageway and between Castlecary to Old Inns on the westbound carriageway.

Links

• Transport Scotland - M80 Stepps to Haggs Project