Glasgow Chamber of Commerce is calling on Transport Scotland to publish all the technical modelling supporting the demolition of crumbling viaducts carrying the M8 motorway through the city.
It wants all three options for the future of the structure to be fully tested before any final decision is made.
Built in 1971 between Craighall and Charing Cross, the Woodside Viaducts carry about 150,000 vehicles a day and have been propped up since March 2021 at a cost of more than £150 million in temporary repairs.
Transport Scotland has consulted on repairing, replacing or removing the structure which has been blighted by lane closures, speed restrictions and restricted slip roads.
The chamber says the M8/M74 corridor is critical to the regional economy, connecting Glasgow’s manufacturing base, more than 3,000 firms and 55,000 jobs, to Glasgow Airport, Greenock Ocean Terminal and the Glasgow-Edinburgh corridor.
Scotland moves around 148 million tonnes of freight by road each year, the bulk of it on the M8/M74.
The Chamber’s council of directors has examined the evidence published so far and identified significant gaps. The council of directors has agreed ten questions it says must be answered before the Chamber can take a final position.
These include the capacity of the M74 to absorb displaced traffic, the impact on the neighbouring Kingston Bridge, and the long-term plan for the full M8 corridor.
Chamber chief executive Stuart Patrick said: “This is one of the most consequential infrastructure decisions Glasgow will face in a generation, and it shouldn’t be made on incomplete evidence.
“The modelling behind this consultation didn’t even test what removal plus investment in an alternative would look like.
“Before Glasgow cuts one of its main arteries, we need the completed technical work, all three options properly modelled, and the industrial case weighed as heavily as the regeneration case. Get this right and Glasgow gains, but if we get it wrong, it’s very hard to undo.”
The Chamber has not endorsed any of the three options and says its priority is that Transport Scotland completes and publishes the outstanding analysis before proceeding.
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