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A74(M) and M74 motorways
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A74(M) and M74 motorways
The A74(M) and M74 form a major motorway in Scotland, connecting it to England. The routes connect the M8 motorway in central Glasgow to the Scottish-English border at Gretna. They are part of the unsigned international E-road network E05. Although the entire route is colloquially referred to as the M74, for more than half its length, south of Abington, the road is officially the A74(M); see naming confusion below.
From its junction with the M8 just south of the Kingston Bridge, the newest section passes through the Glasgow districts of Govanhill, Polmadie, Oatlands and parts of the nearby towns of Rutherglen and Cambuslang, on an elevated embankment, with junctions at Kingston, Polmadie Road, Eastfield and Tollcross before connecting to the much older section of the M74. It then runs in a roughly south-easterly direction past the Clyde Valley towns of Uddingston, Bothwell, Hamilton and Motherwell, meeting the A725 road at junction 5 (Raith Interchange), before meeting the cross-country A71 at Larkhall. It passes west of Lanark and beyond Abington, where it changes into the A74(M). The road then bypasses Moffat and Lockerbie. The road then shortly enters England before becoming the M6 near Longtown.
From junction 4 southwards it is part of the E05 Euroroute from Greenock to Algeciras. North from junction 4, the E05 takes a short stretch of the M73 connecting to the M8 and then proceeds westwards through Glasgow to Greenock.
The A74 was the original route from Glasgow to Carlisle, where it met the A7 in Carlisle city centre and the A6 south to London.
Starting in the 1930s, the single-carriageway road between Gretna and Glasgow was progressively upgraded to dual carriageway, being completed in the early 1970s with the completion of the Gretna bypass.
At the northern end, it was not possible simply to add to the existing carriageway because of the built-up nature of the area. A bypass was built as one of Scotland's first motorways, the M74, from Draffan to Maryville, north of Uddingston, completed by 1969. Junctions were originally numbered from south to north, which was the normal convention at the time numbers increasing going away from London, as there were no plans to extend the motorway.
The northern section around Hamilton was built as three-lane dual carriageway, narrowing to two-lane dual carriageway south of junction 4. It continued as the A74 dual-carriageway from Draffan and carrying on to link with the M6 junction 44 at Carlisle.
The southern sections, where there was no need to bypass the existing route, were not originally upgraded to motorway standard, but to dual carriageway without hard shoulders or full grade separation. The gradual construction of the M6 from Rugby (where it met the M1 to London) to Carlisle in 1970, where it terminated on the A74, meant that the route from Glasgow to London was entirely dual carriageway.
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A74(M) and M74 motorways
The A74(M) and M74 form a major motorway in Scotland, connecting it to England. The routes connect the M8 motorway in central Glasgow to the Scottish-English border at Gretna. They are part of the unsigned international E-road network E05. Although the entire route is colloquially referred to as the M74, for more than half its length, south of Abington, the road is officially the A74(M); see naming confusion below.
From its junction with the M8 just south of the Kingston Bridge, the newest section passes through the Glasgow districts of Govanhill, Polmadie, Oatlands and parts of the nearby towns of Rutherglen and Cambuslang, on an elevated embankment, with junctions at Kingston, Polmadie Road, Eastfield and Tollcross before connecting to the much older section of the M74. It then runs in a roughly south-easterly direction past the Clyde Valley towns of Uddingston, Bothwell, Hamilton and Motherwell, meeting the A725 road at junction 5 (Raith Interchange), before meeting the cross-country A71 at Larkhall. It passes west of Lanark and beyond Abington, where it changes into the A74(M). The road then bypasses Moffat and Lockerbie. The road then shortly enters England before becoming the M6 near Longtown.
From junction 4 southwards it is part of the E05 Euroroute from Greenock to Algeciras. North from junction 4, the E05 takes a short stretch of the M73 connecting to the M8 and then proceeds westwards through Glasgow to Greenock.
The A74 was the original route from Glasgow to Carlisle, where it met the A7 in Carlisle city centre and the A6 south to London.
Starting in the 1930s, the single-carriageway road between Gretna and Glasgow was progressively upgraded to dual carriageway, being completed in the early 1970s with the completion of the Gretna bypass.
At the northern end, it was not possible simply to add to the existing carriageway because of the built-up nature of the area. A bypass was built as one of Scotland's first motorways, the M74, from Draffan to Maryville, north of Uddingston, completed by 1969. Junctions were originally numbered from south to north, which was the normal convention at the time numbers increasing going away from London, as there were no plans to extend the motorway.
The northern section around Hamilton was built as three-lane dual carriageway, narrowing to two-lane dual carriageway south of junction 4. It continued as the A74 dual-carriageway from Draffan and carrying on to link with the M6 junction 44 at Carlisle.
The southern sections, where there was no need to bypass the existing route, were not originally upgraded to motorway standard, but to dual carriageway without hard shoulders or full grade separation. The gradual construction of the M6 from Rugby (where it met the M1 to London) to Carlisle in 1970, where it terminated on the A74, meant that the route from Glasgow to London was entirely dual carriageway.
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