BAILLIESTON’S TEAM WELCOME FURTHER TRANSPORT INVESTMENT

28 Mar 2012

Baillieston’s SNP team has today (Wednesday) welcomed news that Transport Scotland is hosting an industry day to inform contractors and potential providers of the business opportunities the M8, M73, M74 Motorway Improvements project offers their businesses.

This new £415 million construction project combines plans to upgrade the A8 Baillieston to Newhouse, completing the motorway between Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as work to improve Raith Interchange and the widening of key sections of the M8, M73 and M74. Each of these motorways have a connection to the Shettleston MSP’s constituency.

The project is of a similar scale to the recent M74 extension which directly supported 900 construction jobs and is expected to reduce by 18 minutes the journey time for around 115,000 vehicles for the busiest sections of the M8 per day.

Procurement for the project, the first roads infrastructure project to be procured as part of the £2.5bn Scottish Government’s revenue funded programme of NPD projects, starts on 30 March with the publication of the OJEU notice.

Councillor David Turner, who represents Baillieston in Glasgow City Council, commented:

“This is great news. I know that many of my constituents will be pleased that the SNP Government is pressing ahead to upgrade the A8 from Baillieston to Newhouse.”

Austin Sheridan, the SNP’s second candidate in Baillieston for the forthcoming elections to Glasgow City Council, added:

“Since 2007, the SNP Government has taken forward the largest investment ever in the country’s transport infrastructure with a number of vital projects being completed on or ahead of time and on or under budget. This underlines our commitment to invest in jobs and improve Scotland’s transport network – particularly in the run up to Glasgow 2014.”

Welcoming news of this latest SNP investment, local MSP John Mason, said

“Today’s news reinforces my view that, when the SNP wins, Glasgow wins. Once again we see the Scottish Government leading the way and investing in the road network. This all comes in addition to investment in Glasgow’s subway, the new M74 extension and the new Glasgow to Edinburgh rail link.”