B7064

The B7064 is a link route in two parts on the west and north western sides of Kilmarnock in Ayrshire.

Munro Avenue, B7064, looking southeastward

The first, relatively recent, section is a short link running for just under a mile from the A759 north, across the A71 to meet the A7081. It starts at a TOTSO junction on the north side of the bridge carrying the A759 over the Kilmarnock to Troon railway line. Less than 200m after setting off, the B7064 meets the current route of the dualled A71 Kilmarnock southern bypass at the large Moorfield Roundabout. A similar distance to the north, another roundabout gives access to an industrial estate on the left, and a housing estate on the right. The route curves gently across a green space between these two growing developments, before cutting across a field to meet the B7081 at another roundabout. The two routes then multiplex eastwards along Irvine Road for around half a mile.

The second section of the route turns off the B7081 at a signalised crossroads in the west Kilmarnock suburb of Bonnyton. It heads north along Munro Avenue, which is initially a wide S2 with on street parking between mid 20th century council housing. After a signalised crossroads, the road becomes a dual carriageway, but more on street parking means there is only really one lane of traffic in either direction. The central reservation briefly disappears as Munro Avenue becomes Western Road and crosses the railway, resuming before the next roundabout is reached. This gives access to industrial sites and a new housing development on the left. The A735 is crossed at the next roundabout, beyond which the route becomes more suburban. It is still technically a dual carriageway, but the liberal use of paint has created (now very faded) cycle lanes, parking bays, turning lanes and bus stops, not to mention long stretches of hatching, reducing the route to an effective D1.

After passing through another area of mid twentieth century housing, a large area of parkland stretches along the left hand side of the road, while the housing to the right either backs onto the main road, or is set back behind service roads. A final curve brings Western Road to a roundabout junction with the B7038 (former A77) Glasgow Road, north of the town centre, where the B7064 comes to an end.

History

The completed, but unclassified route in 1951

Munro Avenue and Western Road began life in the late 1930s as part of a planned western bypass of Kilmarnock. This explains the route having formerly been a full D2 dual carriageway, with a couple of short sections of what would have been S4 as noted above. However, very little had been built before World War II intervened, and the connection between the then-routes of the A71 and A77 was not completed until c1951. Only the first 200m of this section had been completed by 1937/38, however, with a 1937 map showing the railway bridge already built but as yet with no road at either end! The 1949 edition of the OS 1:25,000 map shows only the section of the route north of the A735 to the junction with Knockinlaw Road complete an open to traffic. However, the 1952 edition, and the 1951 One Inch map both show the route completed, but unclassified. Most of the area traversed is now extensively residential, but the B7064, with its wide grass verges and central reservation, retains a great deal of the character of a pre-WW2-designed bypass road.

The southern extension was first opened as part of the A71 in 1983. This formed the eastern part of the Springside and Crosshouse bypass route, connecting back to the old A71 into Kilmarnock town centre. The Kilmarnock Southern Bypass opened almost exactly four years later in November 1987, at which point the B7064 was extended south. It is not entirely clear what number the short section between the A71 and A759 had in the first instance.

The use of the B7064 number for this route appears to date to the early 1960s, first appearing on maps in 1964. However, this poses a slight problem, as other B706x numbers were allocated in the mid 1930s, and no previous use for the B7064 number has yet been found. Does this mean that the number was allocated in anticipation of the new road being built?