M77 motorway

The M77 motorway is a motorway between Lanarkshire and Ayrshire. It begins in Glasgow at the M8 motorway at Kinning Park, and terminates near Kilmarnock at Fenwick. Changes were made in 2005 segregating a lane on the M8 almost as far as the Kingston Bridge, which in January 2006 was extended further onto the bridge itself. It forms the most northerly part of the A77 trunk road which links Glasgow to Stranraer. (The A77 itself continues to Portpatrick in the Rhins of Galloway.)

History

The original M77 was a short mile-and-a-half spur route which took traffic from the M8 motorway in the Kinning Park area of Glasgow, ending at a roundabout on Dumbreck Road close to Bellahouston Park, although prior to this there had been an unused spur running to roughly Ibrox telephone exchange on Gower Street. A large number of accidents and pollution problems caused in the Giffnock and Newton Mearns districts by commuter traffic and heavy lorries (the A77 is the main route for ferry-bound traffic sailing to Northern Ireland), saw an extension being built to the motorway in 1994 to bypass these areas, which was opened in 1997. This was fiercely opposed by environmentalists, who set up a road protest camp, as it meant that the motorway would cut through the historic Pollok Country Park. Approval for the extension was granted and construction went ahead. A threatening visit in 1995 to the protesters of 'Pollok Free State' by the Conservative Member of Parliament Allan Stewart (then the MP for the Eastwood constituency including Newton Mearns, which the new road would bypass), accompanied by his airgun-wielding son, resulted in a political shot in the foot, contributing to his subsequent resignation, and a fine for his son in Paisley Sheriff Court.

The latest upgrade was instigated in 2003, and involved extending the M77 a further nine miles south to the village of Fenwick, near Kilmarnock. This replaced the dangerous 4-lane single carriageway of the A77 that dropped to a two lane single carriageway for the bend just north of the Mearnskirk turn-off, and the A77/B764 (Eaglesham) junction (causing vehicles to queue dangerously on the outside lane on a bend to enter the B764 from the south) which were prone to fatal accidents. The scheme also included the Glasgow Southern Orbital (GSO) which bypasses the B764 Eaglesham Moor road to East Kilbride. This also resulted in the closure of junction 5 on its previous site at Malletsheugh and the creation of a new junction 5 at Maidenhill. The works were completed in April 2005.

In 2006, junction 2 was rebuilt in conjunction with the building of the adjacent Silverburn Shopping Centre. The northbound off-ramp and southbound on-ramp are now routed via the access roundabout to the shopping centre.

In 2010 a relief lane was constructed between Plantation and junction 1 southbound. The purpose of this was to ease the congestion that regularly occurs during peak rush hour.

Much of the original section of the A77 that carried the traffic now accommodated by the M77 has been converted into a two-lane single carriageway with cycle lanes.

Junctions

M77 motorway
Northbound exits	Junction	Southbound exits
Lanarkshire
Glasgow City Centre, Edinburgh M8 Carlisle M74 Greenock, Glasgow Airport M8 west	M8 J22	Start of motorway
Renfrewshire
Govan, Pollokshields B768	J1	Govan, Pollokshields B768
Pollok, Barrhead B762	J2	Pollok, Barrhead B762
Pollok (South), Nitshill, Darnley, A726	J3	Paisley, Pollok (South), Nitshill, Darnley A726
No exit	J4	Newton Mearns
East Kilbride, Eaglesham A726 Newton Mearns A77	J5	East Kilbride, Eaglesham A726 Newton Mearns A77
Ayrshire
No exit	J6	Galston A77
No exit	J7	Stewarton, Fenwick B778
Start of motorway	J8	Fenwick B7061
Fenwick B7061		Road continues as A77 to Kilmarnock

Ouside links

• Glasgow's Motorways - The M77 Motorway
• The Motorway Archive – M77