Following yesterday’s story on thee potential permanent closure of the M8 Woodside Viaducts in Glasgow, Transport Scotland have provided an update.

A Transport Scotland spokesperson told Highways News:

“We are keen to hear the thoughts of the local communities and road users on the permanent solution for the M8 Woodside Viaducts project. Public engagement events are being held to provide local communities and road users with the opportunity to learn more and to share their feedback on the options.

“The temporary propping that is currently underway is a short term measure which has a limited lifespan, will require maintenance, and take up extensive road space below the viaducts, and therefore this is not an effective long-term solution. A permanent solution is required. 

All options, says Transport Scotland, are considered during the appraisal process.

“Removing the viaducts is an option that came out of the assessment of initial strategic options and it is only right that we include this as one of the options to consider.  We are keen to get feedback from the public, including road users, and will use it to help inform the next steps of the project.”

The remove approach would reroute M8 traffic onto other roads on the network and is anticipated to have a major detrimental impact on traffic flows, connectivity, network resilience and journey time reliability. 

“This was one of three approaches that came out of the initial strategic options assessment and it was concluded that it should be included as part of the high level comparison between the options being considered.”

Transport Scotland and WSP have collaborated with PinPoint ConnectALL to create a virtual exhibition of the M8 Woodside Viaducts plan which can be viewed HERE.

(Picture: Transport Scotland)