Pennyburn Roundabout

Pennyburn Roundabout lies at the meeting point of the 1962 Kilwinning bypass and the much more modern Three Towns Bypass, which dates from 2004. The roundabout belongs to the older road, and was for many years the terminus of the dual carriageway from the south, where the A78 effectively TOTSOd to the west onto its historic route, the eastern arm having been renumbered as an extension of the A738, after a short multiplex from Saltcoats.

Today, then, the roundabout is a 4-arm junction, with the dualled A78 running South east to north west, and the A738 crossing roughly at right angles. Apart from the western arm of the A738, all of the other routes are primary, the eastern A738 providing a connection to the trunk A737 in Kilwinning. The A738 into Saltcoats appears to have previously had either an S4 or WS2 layout, but now has bus lanes in either direction, so there are only two traffic lanes. It is, nevertheless a wide road with two lanes approaching and leaving the roundabout, as does the eastern arm of the A738 towards Kilwinning, although this is quickly hatched down to a S2 with central hatched turning lanes.

The roundabout has two circulatory lanes, and also has a slip-lane from the south eastern A78 to the western A738, perhaps leftover from before the Three Towns Bypass was built.

Routes

Route	To	Notes
A78	Irvine, Prestwick Airport, Ayr
A78	Ardrossan Ferry, Largs, Greenock
A738	Kilwinning, Dalry, Beith (A737), M8
A738	Stevenston, Saltcoats