B803
B803 | ||||||||||
Location Map ( geo) | ||||||||||
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From: | Falkirk (NS888796) | |||||||||
To: | Coatbridge (NS730650) | |||||||||
Distance: | 16.3 miles (26.2 km) | |||||||||
Meets: | A803, B8080, B8028, B8022, A73, B802, B804, A89 | |||||||||
Highway Authorities | ||||||||||
Traditional Counties | ||||||||||
Route outline (key) | ||||||||||
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The B803 is a long B-road in the Central Belt of Scotland, connecting the large towns of Falkirk and Coatbridge.
Route
It starts on the A803 (former A9) gyratory at the west end of Falkirk town centre, and briefly heads south as a dual carriageway. While there are two lanes southbound, the left lane is purely for access to the Howgate Centre Car Park at the next roundabout, and there is only a single lane northbound. The route then bears sharp right at the back of the Howgate Centre onto Arnothill Bank, wuickly meeting the B8080 at a double mini roundabout. The two routes then multiplex eastwards along Hodge Street and Cochrane Avenue to another mini-roundabout where they diverge again. The B803 following Cow Wynd an High Station Road south west as it climbs across the steep hillside below Callendar Woods.
Curving southwards onto Glen Brae, the climb steepens, but progress is soon halted by a signalised T junction, where the B803 meets the B8028 as it TOTSOs to the left and soon goes over the Glasgow - Falkirk - Edinburgh railway line by Falkirk High Station. Heading west now along Slamannan Road, the route crosses a final roundabout before reaching open country. The road turns sharply southwards and dips to cross the Glen Burn before climbing steadily away to the south west, meandering a little as it crosses some otherwise strictly rectilinear fields which ignore the contours. At the summit of 191m near Barleyside, the route turns to the west to avoid Darnrig Moss, and reaches almost 200m at Jawcraig. After crossing the River Avon the village of Slamannan is reached with a TOTSO T-junction on the High Street. Technically, the B803 and B8022 miss each other here by 50m or so, with both routes seemingly turning away from each other. However, the intervening section of the High Street is shown as a B road and although never explicitly numbered, as the B803 was here first, it seems likely that the link is a spur of the B8022.
Leaving Slamannan behind, the road runs west for a few miles along a narrow, albeit fairly flat and straight, road. This area was once covered in coal mines, with old railway lines snaking across the landscape, connecting together the derelict pitheads and abandoned colliery villages. Some communities survived better than others, and Greengairs and Wattston are now both growing settlements. Soon after, the B803 reaches a roundabout on the A73, from which the two routes multiplex south through Stand to the next roundabout where the B803 regains its number and westerly direction. The road quickly reaches Glenmavis where there is another multiplex along Coatbridge Road with the B802 between two mini-roundabouts, although here it is uncertain which number is dominant. Beyond the village, the road descends steadily through the fields to reach the edge of Coatbridge.
The entrance to the town is marked by an industrial area, with some older houses on the roadside, and then after crossing a signalised crossroads, it follows Burnbank Street to meet the B804. The junction is another double mini roundabout, one either side of a railway line, with the connecting road curving over the bridge. The B803 continues west along Sunnyside Road to another mini roundabout at Sunnyside Station. It TOTSOs left here and ends shortly afterwards at a roundabout on the A89 (former A8) at the western end of Coatbridge High Street.
History
The only real change to the route of the B803 since 1922 is at the Falkirk end, where the route used to start in the town centre. It then followed Cow Wynd south to pick up its present route. This remained the case into the 1970s, but was presumably changed to remove traffic from the town centre and allow some pedestrianisation in the 1980s.