M8 upgrade: Missing link to cost £28m a mile

A MASSIVE road building programme to complete the M8 and upgrade other motorways will cost more than £500 million, ministers have announced.

The scheme will see a seven-mile “missing link” of the A8 upgraded east of Glasgow, along with 11 miles of other new motorway lanes and a junction overhaul on the M74.

However, the project will not be completed until 2017 – four years later than planned – as The Scotsman reported in December last year.

The timing of the announcement angered Labour, which said the SNP had claimed it was waiting for more Treasury funding for such projects.

The work, which will see the existing dual carriageway replaced by a two- or three-lane motorway, is estimated to cost a total of £508m, including £415m for construction. That equates to roughly £28m per mile.

No previous cost estimate has been given, although the last published price tag for the A8 element, between Baillieston and Newhouse in Lanarkshire, was £120m.

The programme also involves widening sections of the M8, M73 and M74 around Glasgow, and improvements to the Raith interchange on the M74 at junction five, where the A725 provides links to the M8 and M77.

The Scottish Government’s Transport Scotland agency, responsible for the project, said it was expected to cut up to 18 minutes off journeys for some 115,000 vehicles a day on the busiest sections of the M8.

Firms will be invited to bid for the contract from tomorrow, under the Scottish Government’s “non-profit distributing model” – its version of the Private Finance Initiative.

Transport minister Keith Brown said: “Today, we move a step closer to completing the central Scotland motorway network. On completion, the M8/M73/M74 motorway improvements project will boost the nation’s economy by improving connections between the commercial centres of Glasgow and Edinburgh and beyond. Scotland’s motorways are the beating heart of Scotland’s economy.”

Mr Brown expected the scheme to create 900 construction jobs – a similar number as in the M74 extension in Glasgow completed last year.

However, Uddingston and Bellshill Labour MSP Michael McMahon said: “Something doesn’t add up here. It was only a couple of weeks ago that the SNP had the begging bowl out, demanding the UK government pay towards this project, yet this week the SNP seems to have found a treasure chest with the funds required to go ahead it. You don’t find that kind of money down the back of the sofa.

“It is now clear the SNP didn’t need to wait for the UK government. If it turns out the SNP have been playing politics with people’s jobs, people locally will be furious.”

Neil Greig, the Scotland-based policy and research director of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, said: “If Scottish firms can gain contracts before the road even opens, then the economic benefits will start earlier and last even longer.

“More jobs and fewer accidents has to be a win-win situation for Scottish drivers.”

Full details of the M8 upgrade

click here to view www.scotsman.com/news/full-details-of-the-m8-upgrade-1-2201413