A74 road
Encyclopedia
The A74 was a major trunk road
Trunk road
A trunk road, trunk highway, or strategic road is a major road—usually connecting two or more cities, ports, airports, and other things.—which is the recommended route for long-distance and freight traffic...

 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, linking Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

 in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 to Carlisle in the North West
North West England
North West England, informally known as The North West, is one of the nine official regions of England.North West England had a 2006 estimated population of 6,853,201 the third most populated region after London and the South East...

 of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The road has been largely replaced by the A74(M) and M74 motorways and now only one short stub remains.

From the 1960s onward, the A74 underwent a process of gradual conversion to motorway standard. The original section of the M74 in the mid-1960s ran from Draffen, (Blackwood) in South Lanarkshire to Hamilton, eventually being extended nortwards, in 2 stages to initially to Bothwell Bridge, and then Uddingston. Originally the M74 junctions were numbered like the other British motorways away from London, but the M74 junctions were re-numbered in 1985 in a southwards direction, to allow junctions of the first extension from its original southern termination at Draffen, southwards to Parkhead 'AA' box to be numbered. On re-numbering of the M74 in 1985 the most Northern junction (at that time) was not given the number 1 to enable numbering to be in place for the Northern extension from Uddingston into Glasgow. As of 2008,the M74 motorway now extends southwards to the northern terminus of the M6
M6 motorway
The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, Preston, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction . Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74 which continues to...

,at the Scottish Border, so that the two are now contiguous, and was extended northwards in the mid-1990s as far as the Glasgow suburb of Tollcross
Tollcross, Glasgow
Tollcross is an area north of the River Clyde in Glasgow and has a popular park which is famed for its international rose trials. It lies approximately a mile east of the neighbouring suburb of Parkhead, and just north of Braidfauld and south of Shettleston....

. The parallel road which was the A74 has been downgraded in two sections as the B7076 and B7078.

Glaswegian section

The small remnant of the original A74 remains in the south eastern suburbs of Glasgow, between the A721 at Uddingston
Uddingston
Uddingston is a small town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is on the north side of the River Clyde, about seven miles south-east of Glasgow...

 and the city centre. The construction of the M74 extension into the city centre by 2010 is likely to result in a downgrading of this section.

Cumberland Gap

The Cumberland Gap was the six miles (10 km) of A74 between the northern terminus of the M6
M6 motorway
The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, Preston, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction . Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74 which continues to...

 at Carlisle, and the south end of the A74(M) at the Scottish border. It existed as an isolated stub from 1992 until 2008, when the M6 was extended northwards.

When the M6 was being built, the A74 already existed as a dual carriageway
Dual carriageway
A dual carriageway is a class of highway with two carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation...

 between Carlisle and Glasgow. It was decided therefore that the M6 would terminate on the A74, six miles (10 km) short of the Scottish border. 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
Highways Agency
The Highways Agency is an executive agency, part of the Department for Transport in England. It has responsibility for managing the core road network in England...

..
This left a remnant of the old A74 as a six mile (10 km) stretch of two-lane dual carriageway
Dual carriageway
A dual carriageway is a class of highway with two carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation...

 between two long, three-lane motorways.

After years of political battles between the English Highways Agency
Highways Agency
The Highways Agency is an executive agency, part of the Department for Transport in England. It has responsibility for managing the core road network in England...

 and the Scottish Executive
Scottish Executive
The Scottish Government is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was established in 1999 as the Scottish Executive, from the extant Scottish Office, and the term Scottish Executive remains its legal name under the Scotland Act 1998...

, followed by a lengthy design and public enquiry phase, approval to build a 6 miles (9.7 km) long extension to the M6 was granted in March 2006, and construction work began on 25 July 2006. The new stretch of road was officially opened on 5 December 2008, the 50th anniversary of the opening of the first motorway in the UK, the M6.

External links

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