B8054

Lye Brae (B8054), Cumbernauld

The B8054 is a strange product of the Cumbernauld New Town development.

The road starts at a squished trumpet interchange on the A8011 Central Way; the slip roads are interlinked with the next GSJ to the north, a roundabout interchange with unclassified roads, the whole being called the Muirhead - Braehead Interchange. The road initially heads south eastwards as a dual carriageway for something less than half a mile before the carriageways flare out on the approach to Kildrum South Roundabout. Here, the planned overbridge to carry the main road over the junction was clearly never built, interrupting what could have been a free-flowing route.

The flared carriageways haven't even rejoined each other before the next junction is reached, another squished trumpet, where the B8054 effectively TOTSOs with the unclassified Forest Road. It is almost a copy of the junction at the start of the route, prompting the thought that maybe the Forest Road - Lenziemill Road route was intended to be another dual carriageway. For the B8054 this is therefore the end of the dual carriageway, as from here the road is a wide two-way route, with a central lane hatched out between turning lanes. The road now winds south westwards past industrial estates lining the southern edge of the town to reach a strange dumbbell junction with the B8039. Strange because again the overbridge was never built! This time, however, the missing bridge is on the B8039, and there is no suggestion that the B8054 would have been allowed to freeflow.

The B8054 ends here but Lenziemill Road continues ahead as an unclassified road around the southern edge of the town, an industrial strip separated from the housing by the railway line. The road quickly reaches a 'normal' roundabout with the busy A73 - if any junction needed GSJing, it's this one, and yet there is no evidence on the ground that it was ever planned.

History

The B8054 owes its existence to the creation of Cumbernauld new town in the 1960s, with the route being built in stages. The first section, shown complete on the 1969 OS 1:2500 map, followed Lye Brae south to Kildrum South Roundabout, and then followed South Carbrain Road towards the station. This was the former route of the A73, and indeed the next sheet over still marks South Carbrain Road as the A73. The next map marking the B8054 is the 1971 OS Quarter Inch sheet, which shows the route following all of the former A73 route, south past Luggiebank - the B8039 is not marked at all. However, the One Inch sheet from the same year does mark the B8039, but the B8054 has not yet been curtailed. By the 1974 OS One Inch, however, the current situation is shown, with the slight exception that the new road at Luggiebank is not yet built, so the B8054 terminates a few metres short of the current dumbbell junction.

Numbering mystery

It is clear from the above that the current B8054 dates from the late 1960s, and certainly there is no B road in the area any earlier. However, this poses a problem, as the number should have first been issued in c1930, long before Cumbernauld New Town was proposed. Geographically the route should lie between Airdrie (B8053) and west Glasgow (B8055), although that number is also questionable at this early date, and the B8056 lies in Wester Ross, leaving a vast area in which the original B8054, if indeed the number was allocated, should lie. At present, no map identifying the route has been located however.