Auchenkilns Junction
| Auchenkilns Junction | |||
| Location Map ( geo) | |||
 | |||
| |||
| Location | |||
| Cumbernauld | |||
| County | |||
| Dunbartonshire | |||
| Highway Authority | |||
| Transport Scotland | |||
| Junction Type | |||
| Dumbbell | |||
| Roads Joined | |||
| M80, A73, B8048 | |||
| Junctions related to the B8048 | |||
For the former (until 2011) junction 5 of the M80, see Bankhead Interchange.
Auchenkilns Junction (junction 5 of the M80) is a dumbbell junction at which the M80 meets the A73 and B8048 near Cumbernauld in the detached part of Dunbartonshire. Its present layout was completed in November 2005 and was little changed by the subsequent upgrade of the A80 to become the M80, completed in 2011. The connecting road between the two roundabouts is dualled, as is the A73 as it curves away to the south, while the B8048 is only a single carriageway; all of the approaches have two lanes for turning traffic. No other roads connect to the junction, and while it is surrounded by scrubby woodland, the surrounding development patterns mean that it is unlikely that this will change in the short to medium term.
A feature of this junction are the expansion joints on the M80 to the north east of the junction. The road is on a Concrete raft to cross a peat bog which caused considerable issues when the junction was being constructed.
History
From the mid 1950s until 2005 the junction was an at-grade roundabout and one of the most notorious junctions in Scotland for delays and accidents. The roundabout was located some distance to the SW of the present bridge, near where the slip roads now diverge from the M80 mainline; the A73 was then straight. Earlier there was a crossroads at the site, with the B8048 turning off the A80 to the north and a minor road to the south. The diversion of the A73 to this site was a result of the construction of Cumbernauld New Town.
The Glasgow Highway Development Plan would have made this junction a 3-level roundabout between the Stirling motorway and the Hamilton - Cumbernauld Motorway to the south and Campsie Expressway to the east.
Strip maps
The pre-motorway layout of the interchange.
The current layout of the interchange.
Routes
| Route | To | Notes |
| Stirling, Kincardine Bridge (M876) | ||
| Glasgow, (M8), Carlisle (M73) | ||
| Airdrie | ||
| Kirkintilloch, Kilsyth, Cumbernauld | ||
| Stirling (M80), Kincardine Bridge (M876) | ||
| Glasgow, (M8), Carlisle (M73) | ||
| Carlisle (M74), Hamilton, Motherwell, Coatbridge | ||
| Kirkintilloch, Milngavie, Erskine Bridge |
