A74 road
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| A74 road | |
| Direction | South-North |
| Start | Carlisle |
| End | Glasgow |
| Roads joined | |
The A74 was a major trunk road in the United Kingdom, linking Glasgow in Scotland to Carlisle in the North West of England. The road has been largely replaced by the A74(M) and M74 motorways and now only two short stubs remain.
From the 1960s onward, the A74 underwent a process of gradual conversion to motorway standard. The original section of the M74 ran from Uddingston in the south eastern outskirts of Glasgow to Motherwell in the Clyde Valley. The motorway section now extends to Gretna at the Anglo-Scottish border, and was extended northwards in 1992 as far as the Glasgow suburb of Tollcross. The parallel road which was the A74 has been downgraded in two sections as the B7076 and B7078.
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[edit] Glaswegian section
The small remnant of the original A74 remains in the south eastern suburbs of Glasgow, between the A721 at Uddingston and the city centre.[1] The construction of the M74 extension into the city centre by 2010 is likely to result in a downgrading of this section. [2]
[edit] The "Cumberland Gap"
The Cumberland Gap is the six miles of A74 between the northern terminus of the M6 at Carlisle, and the south end of the A74(M) at the Scottish border.
When the M6 was being built, the A74 already existed as a dual carriageway between Carlisle and Glasgow. It was decided therefore that the M6 would terminate on the A74, six miles short of the Scottish border. [3] When the time came to build the A74(M) Scotland had gained independence over road building matters, and thus could only build the road up to the border with England. An offer from the Scottish Executive to build the road to meet the M6 was not accepted by the English Highways Agency.[4]
This left a remnant of the old A74 as a six mile stretch of two-lane dual carriageway between two long, three-lane motorways.
After years of political battles between the English Highways Agency and the Scottish Executive, followed by a lengthy design and public enquiry phase, approval to build a 6 mile long extension to the M6 was granted in March 2006, and construction work began on 25 July 2006. [5]
[edit] References
- ^ A74: Carlisle - Glasgow SABRE
- ^ M74 Completion - Road Safety Transport Scotland
- ^ M6. Carlisle By-pass & Penrith to Carlisle (J41 to J44) The Motorway Archive
- ^ M6 Carlisle - Gretna CBRD
- ^ Extending the motorway • Carlisle to Guards Mill Highways Agency
[edit] External links
- [1]
- "Cumberland Gap" Chris's British Road Directory.
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