May 10 2021

North Lanarkshire Council is progressing a significant package of road infrastructure improvements at Ravenscraig funded by the Glasgow City Deal.

Working with Amey Consulting the authority will drive a new dual carriageway with associated walking and cycling links into the brownfield development to improve access to nearby Motherwell as part of the £190m Pan-Lanarkshire Orbital Transport Corridor connecting the M74 to the M80.

Incorporating an underpass below the West Coast Mainline the complex build will open up 200 hectares of brownfield land which has lain fallow following the closure of the steelworks in 1992.

In a masterplan statement, Amey wrote: "As one of the largest regeneration opportunities in western Europe the redevelopment of Ravenscraig is recognised by the Scottish Government as one of two national development priorities, to be taken forward under its strategy to create a 'successful, sustainable place' with the potential to deliver over four thousand high-quality homes, create employment and education opportunities and provide a range of community, retail and leisure facilities for the benefit of new and existing communities, including those around Ravenscraig which have some of the highest levels of deprivation in Scotland."

Extending from the Windmillhill Street/Airbles roundabout the road link will navigate an industrial area and vacant ground (utilising compulsory purchase orders if necessary) before plunging beneath a railway line to connect with Ravenscraig. 

8 Comments

#1 Posted by City Steal on 10 May 2021 at 16:18 PM

This city deal funding has be around for about 7 years but they seem to have built hardly anything with it. The money seems to be just getting frittered away on consultancy fees, seems to be a common occurrence in this country, lots of money is spent on administration with not much tangible results to show for it.

#2 Posted by Hamish Ashcroft on 10 May 2021 at 18:04 PM

Yes that’s perfect! A massive dual carriageway will definitely encourage people to use sustainable forms of transport! Definitely no super car centric shitty suburban development here!

#3 Posted by Ross Mitchell on 11 May 2021 at 08:41 AM

Utterly ridiculous development. If you're going to invest in a transport link then it should be a road with us lanes and segregated cycle lanes.
Instead they go back to the future with a dual carriageway!

#4 Posted by Daniel on 11 May 2021 at 10:31 AM

Bleak - exactly what I was talking about on the Glasgow city centre strategy. Green ambition, but business-as-usual delivery, because there's absolutely no ability for the system to join these things up.

#5 Posted by Gandalf the Pink on 11 May 2021 at 18:00 PM

Nothing screams Central Belt Scotland like regeneration centred around a dual carriageway. What an incredibly backward step to take.

#6 Posted by E=mc2 on 11 May 2021 at 22:44 PM

Anyone who knows anything about scale, will know the proposed roundabout new roundabout, which will obliterate a number of existing businesses, is absolutely mammoth. This will do for Motherwell what the M8 did for Charing Cross. Instead of being a progressive exemplar of sustainable design, Ravenscraig and its 25+ year old masterplan is crass and unbelievably vapid.

#7 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 13 May 2021 at 22:39 PM

Why is it that any road of substance particularly a seemingly strategic dual carriageway is polluted with roundabouts at 950m centres?

Also coming up for the 30 year anniversary of Ravenscraig closing and the public sector response is terrifyingly bad -- 11 roundabouts and overpriced football shed along with a trophy college surrounded by a sea of parking and some toytown housing.

Not our finest hour -- no imagination / energy / ambition / innovation / legacy.

Surely we can do better than this.

#8 Posted by Hamish Ashcroft on 8 Jul 2021 at 20:18 PM

Yes that’s perfect! A massive dual carriageway will definitely encourage people to use sustainable forms of transport! Definitely no super car centric shitty suburban development here!

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