The A80 is a road in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, running from the A8 to Moodiesburn, north east of Glasgow. Prior to the M80 opening, the A80 was one of Scotland's busiest trunk roads.

Original Route

The A80 was once the main route from

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

. It has now been superseded by the

M80 motorway The M80 is a motorway in Scotland's central belt, running between Glasgow and Stirling via Cumbernauld and Denny and linking the M8, M73 and M9 motorways. Following completion in 2011, the motorway is long. Despite being only a two lane m ...

which roughly follows the route of the original A80.

A80 / M80 Upgrade project

History

The A80 gained a reputation for being one of Scotland's worst traffic bottlenecks. In 1992, the M80 Stepps bypass opened between the M8 and Stepps to relieve pressure on the road. This caused the M80 to lie in two parts with the A80 providing the link between the two sections: between the end of the Stepps bypass, and the 1974 section of the M80 which resumed at Haggs. The Stepps-Haggs stretch, built in the 1960s, was under-capacity in relation to the amount of traffic it carried, and the lack of hard shoulders meant that a vehicle breakdown potentially could cause massive jams

Auchenkilns roundabout upgrade

Despite long-term plans to replace the Stepps-Haggs section with a completed M80, the troublesome Auchenkilns roundabout in Cumbernauld was replaced by a grade separated junction in 2005 as traffic congestion meant it could not wait for the final upgrade (which at that stage, was still in planning). A

dumbbell interchange A diamond interchange is a common type of road junction, used where a controlled-access highway crosses a minor road. Design The freeway itself is grade-separated from the minor road, one crossing the other over a bridge. Approaching the i ...

junction between the A80, A73 and B8048 was opened in November 2005, but the widely regarded long-term solution to the A80's problems was to replace it entirely with a motorway which would bypass Cumbernauld completely. There was a scheme devised in the 1970s to do just that, which would have linked western segment of the M80, linking to the M8, to the eastern segment, where it connects to the A803 and M876, through what was known as the ''Kelvin Valley Route''.

M80 Stepps to Haggs completion project

:''See

'' The Scottish Executive announced in 2002 that the A80 would be upgraded to Motorway standard, replacing the A80 from Stepps to Haggs with the M80. The Kelvin Valley route was not chosen as it would have breached the Antonine Wall and destroyed the

Castlecary Castlecary () is a small historic village in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, directly adjacent to the border with Falkirk. It has long been associated with infrastructure, being adjacent to a bridged river, a Roman fort and roads, a nationwide can ...

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

; instead an on-line upgrade through Cumbernauld was selected. The upgrade was completed in September 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:8-0080 Roads in Scotland Transport in Glasgow Transport in North Lanarkshire Transport in Stirling (council area)