A hawk-eye view of the new Kirkintilloch Link Road
8 Oct 2009
The Kirkintilloch Link Road is now about half way through its construction and is clearly starting to take shape, ahead of its projected opening date of summer 2010.
As a lot of the work, particularly the earthworks, are weather dependent everyone involved in the project is hoping for a dry autumn/winter so this target can be achieved.
Councillor Billy Hendry, Convener of the Council’s Development & Infrastructure Committee and member of Kirkintilloch’s Initiative’s (KI) Partnership Board is delighted to see the road advancing.
He said, “It is great to see how well the construction of the Kirkintilloch Link Road is progressing. The project is a huge undertaking which involves many dedicated people who have dealt with the feasibility and design work right through to the completion of the construction.
“I am certain that Kirkintilloch and surrounding areas will reap many benefits from this new connection to the motorway network and I look forward to the day when it opens to traffic.”
The line of the road and many of its major structures are visible to motorists and passers-by but thanks to the use of innovative technology, Kirkintilloch’s Initiative has some aerial shots of the road to share with local people.
These photographs emphasise the sheer scale of the project and together with the following facts make for interesting reading for those people looking forward to using the road next year:
• The Kirkintilloch Link Road is 4.1 kilometres long
• Side roads add a further 800 metres to its length
• Its surface area is equivalent to seven times the area of the pitch at Hampden
Details about the road include:
• It crosses seven existing public roads on its way from the Hornshill Roundabout at the M80 to the existing roundabout at the junction of New Lairdsland Road/Parliament Road /Industry Street close to Kirkintilloch town centre
• At each of these crossings a new junction has been formed and three new or improved roundabouts have been created at Hornshill at the M80 slip roads, at Linsdaybeg Road and at New Lairdsland Road
• There is one new traffic signal junction at Woodilee Road/Garngaber Avenue
• There are three places where the side road is taken over the top of the Link Road without making any connection - at Industry Street, at Burnbrae Road and at Blacklands Place
• In addition to the junctions with the existing road network, a new roundabout is being provided to serve Woodilee Industrial Estate.
To maintain the quality of existing watercourse systems:
• Five major culverts have been constructed
• Four balancing ponds have been built
• Natural watercourses over a length of around 600 metres have been realigned
• A vented causeway has been built at Millersneuk Wetlands to allow continued water flow.
Duncan Hamilton, Project Director of KI “The design of the Link Road has carefully ensured that the impact of the construction work on the existing watercourses system is kept to an absolute minimum as required by legislation administered by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA).
“The overarching principal of the drainage design is to ensure that the natural watercourse system functions in the same way after completion of the Link Road as it did prior to construction.”
To facilitate the building of the Link Road, other building work was necessary, and in fact more than 6,000 tonnes of concrete and over 1,000 tonnes of steel were used to build six new bridges at:
• Industry Street
• Woodilee Road for the Bothlin Burn
• The Garngaber Viaduct for protection of the railway
• Blacklands Place
• Burnbrae Road
• The Cult Burn close to Burnbrae Road
And three major retaining walls at:
• The Woodhead Cutting
• Garngaber Avenue
• Lindsaybeg Road.
A massive part of the Link Road project has involved earthworks and the following facts give a flavour of just how enormous the task is:
• About half a million cubic metres of material is needed for the new road embankments and the landscape mounding areas.
• Half of this has come from site excavations with the other half being imported in
• In line with the Council’s green credentials, all material excavated at the site has been re-used.
Councillor Hendry believes that the road is being constructed with every consideration being given to the environment. He said, “To minimise the environmental impact of the earth-moving operations, the Contractor has managed to retain and re-use all excavated material within the site.
“This has meant that no lorries containing excavated material have had to use the local road network and no off-site tips have had to be used for surplus and unsuitable material. All these earthworks have been achieved under very challenging circumstances during a wet July and an August without a single dry day.”
Aerial pictures of the Link Road can be viewed on the KI website by selecting 'Gallery', 'Link Road' and by clicking on an image to view the slideshow.
