Westfield Roundabout (Torphichen)

This article is about Westfield Roundabout on the A801 / A706 near Torphichen..
For other Westfield Roundabouts, see Westfield Roundabout.

Westfield Roundabout is a three arm junction that desperately wants to have 4 arms! It lies a short distance to the south of the Avon Gorge in West Lothian, and was built as part of the new A801 strategic link between the M8 and M9 motorways. However, for some reason, the middle bit across the Avon Gorge was never completed, and so the northern arm of the roundabout is just a stub leading to earthworks that head deep into the woods but stop short of the gorge itself. As a result, the otherwise wide and fast A801 has to turn right and take the old line of the A706 and A801 down to Torphichen Bridge and back up to Bowhouse Roundabout on the far side of the valley.

The roundabout also connects with the B8047, which forms the western arm of the junction. However, for some strange reason, which is highly unlikely to have been built under todays standards, its eastern arm turns off the A706 / A801 just a few yards from the roundabout, rather than meeting the main junction itself.

History

Prior to the construction of the roundabout, the junction was a crossroads, which lay a short distance to the north, indeed where the B8047 still turns off the A706 / A801. The A706 approached the crossroads more directly, the A801 having been realigned slightly to the west, and the western arm of the B8047 continued along what is now a farm track past Avoncrook Farm.

Routes

Route	To	Notes
A706	Linlithgow, Falkirk (A801), (M9)
A801	Bathgate (A800), Livingston (M8), Lanark (A706), Armadale
B8047	Westfield, Avonbridge (B8028)
B8047	Torphichen
A801	Falkirk (A801), (M9)