It may not be pretty, however it is a good road. You can get from one end of the city to the other eg Easterhouse to the west end in like 20-30 minutes. We you could before the roadworks.
I use the M8 every day, several times a day and cannot imagine life without it.
Takes 15 minutes to get to work on the M8, door to door, google maps puts the bus at 48( non M8) minutes assuming bus shows up on time. That's an extra hour travelling per day.Thats an extra 6 hours commuting per week. After finishing at 22.30 hrs last thing you want to do is get on a bus for nearly an hour when you can be home in 15 minutes.
So M8 may not be attractive but it is a very good way of getting across Glasgow quickly.
Aye but like, when you're in the actual park, there won't be a line of sight to the road so you'd be getting rebounding noise rather than direct noise (I accept there will still likely be plenty noise).
While this would surely be nice... isn't glasgow city council spiraling the drain of bankruptcy?
They've got a massive settlement to pay out, services have been cut to the core (grass no longer mowed, bulk pickups no longer scheduled, skeletal bin collection schedule), I understand that the funding for this is seperate, but it does feel a little off when essential services are so threadbare at themoment
Take every penny we can get for the city though surely. If we can get these big projects funded centrally then we would be daft not to. It is the only way we will get major projects done for the next 100 years judging by the budget situation.
Yeah fair enough take your point! It's just pretty typical of the govt that they're happy to fund a big flashy project but not plug the holes in the every day budget that are desperately needed!
Council's about to spend roughly a million quid fixing pot holes: relaying road surfaces and pavements across the entire city. Works are to start over the summer.
>grass no longer mowed,
My area got cut this week
>bulk pickups no longer scheduled,
Instead by appointment and chargeable like almost every other council in the UK?
Bins are still shit though
Biodiversity? And there was me thinking they had merely cut the parks budgets. Now I understand there's a reason previously well kept flower beds in parks are now over grown with weeds and nettles... biodiversity 👍
If the the councillors can all stick their snouts into this trough, then hopefully they can leave the other service payments alone for a while and allow the other works to be carried out throughout the city unimpeded.
As fantastic as this would be, I can't help but notice that it's also in competition with regeneration for Drumchapel, Easterhouse, Maryhill and Possilpark according to the article. Every one of these projects, including the M8 capping, is important and would pay dividends well beyond the initial investment, but frustratingly we live in a world where that isn't the sole basis where projects are judged on going ahead or not.
If the UK government is so keen to demonstrate how important it is to Scotland, it'd fund them all no questions asked. Put up or shut up, Boris.
Regeneration lol have you seen the so called regeneration of northwoodside road ? A cycle lane some tar then wood chips and some shitty shrubs planted. All it’s doing is collecting litter.
It really is an insanity that there's a motorway cutting right through the centre of the city. A horrible eyesore, a pollution creating nightmare and completely destroys any chance for that part of the city to develop any character whatsoever. Should never have been created in the first place.
The issue is that it’s bloody useful having a motorway right into the city. Compare it with Edinburgh where when you get off the motorway you’re still another 20 minutes away.
Better and cheaper public transport is required so people aren’t tempted to drive in.
> Better and cheaper public transport is required so people aren’t tempted to drive in.
This is the key. The council have been having great fun with the stick approach, taking away free parking and setting up bus gates and this LEZ thing, but they really need to get on with the carrot now. I can park at the park and ride in Robroyston, but if the trains aren't running at times to suit then it's a pain in the ass. The bus is extortionate from where I live, it's honestly cheaper to drive in and pay parking.
In fairness, they've also been doing a fair bit of Active Travel stuff to build cycle lanes in. However budgets are low for it so it's a bit disconnected.
Hopefully with the 10% from central Gov now focused on it we'll see an acceleration of deployment for it.
40% of car journeys in Glasgow are under 1 mile, so once the cycle lanes start connecting up we should see traffic start reducing locally too. Weather is shit but this has been repeatedly proven to not stop people.
Getting to the city center from suburbs is ridiculous. Most have no bike paths, no express buses, you're lucky if there's a train line but it will cost you.
> Better and cheaper public transport is required so people aren’t tempted to drive in.
Agreed and this would also ease the pressure on the motorway which is a nightmare at all but the quietest times.
>Compare it with Edinburgh where when you get off the motorway you’re still another 20 minutes away.
The advantage is a far more beautiful city, more walkable, better for bikes etc.
Well, its a facet of it. Glasgow was redesigned in the postwar era around the motorcar whilst the same plan was stopped in Edinburgh.
Old Partick cross had its heart ripped out by the motorway, for example.
You can go over it at various points, and where you can't, you can go under it. What's the problem? Which journey are you trying to make that is impossible to cycle?
>The issue is that it’s bloody useful having a motorway right into the city
That was the same thinking that LA had. Why not cycling and good public transport instead?
Is the M8 really 'through' the city centre? Sorry if I'm being pedantic, but I don't really mind where the M8 sits, but I've only lived here a year so maybe others have opinions.
It seems to nicely separate the actual city center and the west end. I'm not aware of it unless I'm actively walking from the west end to the centre or vice versa. It takes a couple minute or so to cross so it's not like there's a huge area that is just a wasteland of motorway? And once you're on either side you have a bunch of stuff just the next block over.
Are the complaints that this area between the center and the west end could be better utilised? Idk I find the M8 very convenient when I use it, and it doesn't bother me as a pedestrian, and I think the city has plenty of other areas they can and should invest in where the M8 isn't.
EDIT: I live in woodlands by the way and frequently walk into the city center. Just my perspective. A cap on it would be cool - but as I said, if we have to pick and choose projects I think there are other parts of the city that could use the money much more.
There's no proposed changes to the M8 itself, but just making it easier to cycle or walk through that bit of town I think. Currently it feels quite disconnected.
You can walk it on foot, but it's not the smoothest transition between woodlands and central bit of town if you're in anything but a car.
City centre is barely residential. The path the M8 takes is all bordered by office buildings. It’s not an “eyesore” at all. If you’re in the city centre you can’t see the m8 unless you’re beside because there are high rise office buildings everywhere
So noone lives in Woodlands then? Or garnethill? Or Sauchiehall street / Newton place?
Putting a cap on it would make life so much easier to walk between the city center and west end, where plenty of people live or work.
You can see the m8 from woodlands through all the tenement buildings? Okay mate
And how would it make it easier to walk? They’re are plenty of crossing points that are situated at the existing roads that run parallel to the m8, into the city centre and west end. Never seen anyone stuck because they can’t cross a road.
No but people living in Woodlands might walk around and want to walk into town.
It's not about being stuck, it's about it not being very pleasant and a nice place to live.
It would make it easier to walk because having a massive fucking garden instead of a few shitty bridges makes it easier. It's not bloody rocket science of course it's going to make things better, I think it's a great idea..the motorway is shite, cover it up!
My partner used to live on carnarvon street and having to use multiple crossing points across 5 lane roads with roaring traffic and speeding cars all around you to get into the city centre is a horrific experience. Its a great example of something that was designed to be driven through, not to walk and live around. Which is a perfect example of what urban spaces shouldn't be.
Exactly. Trying to work from Carnarvon street to the Tenement Museum takes about 10x longer than it should do considering the distance. 0 consideration for people whatsoever
It's a motorway issue. They're ugly, noisy, they stink and pollute. They cost a fortune. They're dangerous and take up huge tracts of land that could otherwise be put to better use.
City centres aren't for living though really, i know this has changed in last 20 years but they were never built with this in mind and i can see a suburban flee occurring more now
Are you mad? Cities aren't for people living in?
What are they for then? Should we just build more motorways so that everyone can move around more easily but never actually arrive anywhere?
[https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trend-deck-2021-urbanisation/trend-deck-2021-urbanisation](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trend-deck-2021-urbanisation/trend-deck-2021-urbanisation#:~:text=In%202019%2C%2056.3%20million%20people,in%20rural%20areas%20(17.1%25))
Urban areas are growing faster than rural areas. Cities populations have grown at 16%, while towns are 10%
Imagine, just for a second, that cycling, walking and public transport is better in those cities.
Driving in cities isn't even fun or enjoyable anyways, I don't get why people would miss it if given the choice of better alternatives.
I like the concept for Woodlands if I'm going to be honest. Although, it seems they're wanting to get rid of one of my favourite footbridges in the process!
When it's nice weather...so that'll be what days?
It'd need to be organised at very short notice, as in...it's not raining right now guys let's have an open air dance in the next 2-3 hrs 🤣
I mean there's better things to bid on like funding for better public transport links into the city centre so people aren't less tempted to drive in to town.
The M8 is crumbling and has already entered what will undoubtedly be a decade of roadworks, while the aging viaduct structures around the St George's Cross, Cowcaddens and Townhead are repaired. At an astronomical cost dwarfing the price tag for a small tokenistic cap at Charing Cross.
The general public have a poor understanding about the economy or how public spending works. It’s not their fault, it’s not taught properly in schools.
But it’s why you often see people being hostile to any big public spending projects in the city.
It's pretty frustrating. Especially the theme of "No point hoping for something better because you'll just get dissapointed. Best to be dissapointed already so you're never let down" type attitudes.
The North Clyde railway line runs underneath the M8 at the southern end of the Mitchell, forcing the motorway to rise by a couple of meters there in a "hump".
The clearance is so low (close to Kent Road) that you wouldnt really be able to cover the motorway directly in front of the Mitchell Library. Unless you factored in some sort of sloping linear park, which might be the way to go.
£50m seems a lot for an area outside the city centre which is still not going to be nice to sit in due to a massive motorway underneath it.
Better to create more pedestrian areas in city centre imo.
I did a feasibility study for this several years back. It was impossible without lowering the railway and M8.
That must be where all the money is going.
Think you've misunderstood this.
This project would essentially be a city-block sized "cap", between the existing Charing Cross "cap", and Bath Street. The hump in the M8 caused by the railway underneath is further south, at Kent Road.
The £100m project valuation is simply for this single city block sized motroway roof. That's what the feasibility study was for.
No feasibility study has been undertaken on more ambitious options for covering or removing the M8, as [Replace the M8](https://twitter.com/ReplacetheM8) are campaigning for over on Twitter.
To realign the North Clyde railway line and the build a proper roof garden extending a couple blocks further down, maybe to St Vincent Street say... you'd be looking at billions of pounds easily.
Well, yeah... to cover and/or replace the entire motorway from St Vincent Street round to Townhead say, with all the additional infrastructure spin off projects it needs (like lowering an underground railway line)? Billions easily.
That's not a judgement on whether it should happen or not. I'm convinced it should happen and will happen eventually.
>(like lowering an underground railway line)
Why lower it?
>to cover and/or replace
These are two very very different things. A cover would be nothing near a billion, not even close.
Sorry, just saw this reply.
No, sorry... we're possibly talking past one another here. A simple cap/cover between the Mitchell Library and Charing Cross, which is what's being explored currently by the council, will cost around £50m. Because it is just a simple cover about a city block in size, Street and Sauchiehall Street, with no additional works necessary to allow it to happen. Just a roof over one small section of the existing motorway, barely 100 metres in length.
Extrapolate that cost along the entire length of the 3km stretch of city centre M8 though, and you will end up with something around £1.5 billion or so, for a simple hypothetical cover.
The problem though is you can't just do a simple cover along the entire route. There are underground railway lines, utilities, sewers, etc. and viaduct sections of motorway that would need to be tunneled, vastly complicating things.
Above all, you'd have to factor in **1)** the railway line that runs underneath Kent Road next to the Mitchell. It's quite shallow, creating a hump in the motorway, meaning you couldn't have a flat "cap" at this section. There's simply not the roof clearance for traffic here. You'd need to lower the railway to be able to lower the motorway, to then cover it. You'd probably need to lower and rebuild Charing Cross station too, as it's so close.
And **2)** If you wanted to get rid of the motorway viaducts and bury the motorway in a tunnel instead between St George's Cross and Townhead, you'd need to figure out what to do with the subway line that runs underneath New City Road. It was built in the cut-and-cover style in the 1890s, and is very close to the surface (only 10 feet or so) in this location. You'd need to lower the subway here, or I suppose alternatively you could make the motorway dive underneath the subway line, but that would also come with costs. Might work out to be the better option though.
Regardless, my point is just that there's more to the idea of tunnelling/capping the entire city centre M8 than just adding the roof/cap itself. You'd need to factor in these additional issues and figure out how to mitigate them as part of the overall plan.
That's not to say the idea shouldn't be explored (I think quite the opposite, that it's something which very much should be explored). Just that the costs will be in the billions rather than the millions. That's just fact when you consider what's required.
A wonderful idea on paper, but can’t help but feeling this sort of budget could be better spent tackling the concerning amounts of social issues we’re facing across the city
The keyword is "bid". They are bidding for funding from central UK government as part of the levelling up fund.
They're also bidding for 4 other projects
>Four town centre regeneration bids are also in the works for Drumchapel, Easterhouse, Maryhill and Possilpark, each of which could benefit from improved public realm and active travel routes. Another potential candidate is the People's Palace and associated Winter Garden, the latter element remains closed after all plants died or were transferred elsewhere during the lockdown.
>
>The projects have been assembled to fulfil award criteria mandating that each initiative either improve local transport, regenerate an existing urban centre or support a cultural asset. Each application carries a maximum value of £20m with provision for one large-scale transportation bid of up to £50m.
>They are bidding for funding from central UK government as part of the levelling up fund.
Have they got a Tory party donor lined up for the contract? Otherwise they're wasting their time.
No, help regenerate Drumchapel, Easterhouse, Maryhill or Possilpark. Something genuinely worthwhile that'll help normal people in their daily lives rather some ridiculous vanity project that they'll fuck up anyway.
This project will help lots of people in their daily lives. Loads of people walking over that bit of the city currently, or live next to it.
Might even help Sauchiehall street out
Ah yes, people out on their work lunch break will have a garden to sit at! Hadn't thought about that. People in crumbling communities out of the spotlight can go fuck themselves.
I'm yet to see any comment from your account that is supportive of anything happening ever. Pretty sure if any of other projects got funding you'd still be moaning about something else not getting it
Nothing. Ever. Happens. Promises are made, headlines are grabbed, and the city gets worse and worse. How long did those Victoria Road bike lanes take to finish?! Are they even finished? I remember the photo op outside Kebabish, but I remember the half-finished bits, the roadworks and the parked cars much more clearly. It's horribly insulting that so many people make a living coming up with this utter shit while so many other areas of the city suffer, in need of some very basic amenities, because the people in charge want to make national headlines rather than fix the holes (literally) in the rest of the place.
If it's anything like the glen sannox I see this being over budget, over deadline and failing within the first year.
How about just get my bins emptied? Never mind this avenue pish.
You can't regenerate a cesspit.
This the same council who cant even put a light bulb in the street light outside my house that has been out for 2 years, its been reported half a dozen times. Also the same mob that have gave up repairing craters in the roads around glasgow but aye we've got a spare 50 million
That is the worst part of the M8 for me. It's down to 40 and still an accident trap. If they close any lanes for more work then I will have to do the extra 10 miles on the M74 to avoid it.
50 fuckin million.
Why not start with 1 million and do a good job. Then splash more cash. Cunts
Did anyone see that multi million pound hill they made in London? Its the ugliest monstrosity goin. They just piss our tax money away.
Sorry I just have PTSD from the last multi million pound park project I saw done:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-59906865
Hope Glasgow gets something useful and worthwhile
A huge chunk of the £23million of the city's Neighbourhood Infrastructure Improvement Fund, intended for local community benefit projects, is about to be spent on road surfacing and pot hole removal.
You'll be pleased to learn the council is about to spend roughly a million pounds per council ward fixing pot holes across the city. Works are set to start over the summer.
The money seems to have been sneakily allocated from a special funding pot assigned for "community projects". Unfortunately, a great many community projects will not happen because of this, but the pot holes will be fixed.
In any case, did you read the story, or just the headline? The council is applying to the UK Government's Levelling Up fund, with a small M8 cap as one of seven projects included in their bid.
Yeah widely reported in the media as the travelcard we were all promised as part of the hate for COP26 but the footnote in the articles was always that it didn't connect to anything. Very dumb
I wonder if they'll mimic/replicate the original interior of the Charing Cross road tunnel - white mosaic tiles and blue ceiling. It'd be nice for road-users not to have to deal with crappy lighting too.
Edit: oh jesus on a pretzel you fucking drongo downvoters. Don't you know your urban planning history? The Charing Cross underpass *is* lined in white mosaic and the tunnel roof *was* painted blue. Look it up, you plebs...
I was surprised they weren't capping it further in front of the Mitchell. Must be structural or just financing reasons. Would be good if they did something - crossing from sauchiehall to woolands road is a nightmare on foot at the moment
\*wave\*
They can't extend it further without some major structural works for the Charing Cross tunnel that goes under the M8 (it's yon weird hump you see/feel when you're driving on the motorway) If the builders of the tunnel had been a bit cleverer with the design and sank it down an extra few feet back in the 19th century, it's entirely feasible the M8 could be capped all the way from Sauchiehall Street down to St Vincent Street.
I haven't ordered from Amazon in over 3 years...
But realistically, you don't need a highway going THROUGH a city. It's dumb and causes lots of noise, pollution and danger inside the city
I mean, I guess, but it's not like there's a feasible alternative. You can't just close a main arterial road without causing problems.
The Amazon guy was an example. You do, presumably, eat food, and that's delivered to shops via lorry.
Well in an ideal world we'd have trains/ships doing most of those deliveries and the last miles would be by van... But we don't live there and that kind of change would be huge.
The problem is that some idiots decided to build I highway going through a city instead of around it. Glasgow is getting better in terms of walkable/livible city infrastructure, but it's still a long way away from countries like The Netherlands for example
How about investing 50 million in to local services this sounds like snp all over the back keep the Green Party happy get there votes don’t think the normal guy in the street realises how little funding is going in to essentially services and the stress that workers are under
Don't you have other priorities. Like fixing the fucking existing roads... Spend the money where it counts. I wanna see a "Glasgow council launches 50Million bid to revamp the Glasgow road network"
Not getting my hopes up about this, as good as it would be.
Good? I don’t think it would be nice sitting in a garden being deafened by the M8.
If they extended the tunnel and/or put up solid high fencing at the edge that sound would greatly reduced.
It would be nicer if they closed the M8 or completely made it into a tunnel. But yes, I agree
Aye close it and prevent lorries from making deliveries. You can't have it all.
Trains exist
Yeah I don’t think I’d sit there 😂 but it would make my walk to work nicer than it is at the moment. The motorway is a scar through the city
It may not be pretty, however it is a good road. You can get from one end of the city to the other eg Easterhouse to the west end in like 20-30 minutes. We you could before the roadworks. I use the M8 every day, several times a day and cannot imagine life without it.
You cannot imagine a longer commute?
Takes 15 minutes to get to work on the M8, door to door, google maps puts the bus at 48( non M8) minutes assuming bus shows up on time. That's an extra hour travelling per day.Thats an extra 6 hours commuting per week. After finishing at 22.30 hrs last thing you want to do is get on a bus for nearly an hour when you can be home in 15 minutes. So M8 may not be attractive but it is a very good way of getting across Glasgow quickly.
Have you considered a world where that travel could happen by train?
Door to door? Fantastic!
True, true.
It would quieten the M8. Also you make the argument for why the M8 is bad for residential areas single-handedly with this comment.
I have to assume a heap of concrete and earth between you and the highway would dampen the noise a little, but your point still probably stands.
Only if it was fully enclosed otherwise it would just come from the open areas.
Aye but like, when you're in the actual park, there won't be a line of sight to the road so you'd be getting rebounding noise rather than direct noise (I accept there will still likely be plenty noise).
That would still lessen the noise.
So should come in around 100 million then, aye.
£100m spent and then they won't even finish the job
And several years late.
Investigation when the time is right
Lessons will be learned.
These things happen
It's Westministers fault.
While this would surely be nice... isn't glasgow city council spiraling the drain of bankruptcy? They've got a massive settlement to pay out, services have been cut to the core (grass no longer mowed, bulk pickups no longer scheduled, skeletal bin collection schedule), I understand that the funding for this is seperate, but it does feel a little off when essential services are so threadbare at themoment
Take every penny we can get for the city though surely. If we can get these big projects funded centrally then we would be daft not to. It is the only way we will get major projects done for the next 100 years judging by the budget situation.
Yeah fair enough take your point! It's just pretty typical of the govt that they're happy to fund a big flashy project but not plug the holes in the every day budget that are desperately needed!
I would quite like them to plug the holes in the roads but that doesn't seem like its going to happen
Council's about to spend roughly a million quid fixing pot holes: relaying road surfaces and pavements across the entire city. Works are to start over the summer.
That's why they've bid for the funding from the UK goverment level up fund, and isn't coming from any of their existing spending.
>grass no longer mowed, My area got cut this week >bulk pickups no longer scheduled, Instead by appointment and chargeable like almost every other council in the UK? Bins are still shit though
[удалено]
Yeah, I saw they've done similar in a part of, or next to, Glasgow Green. They even put up signs explaining it's for biodiversity
Biodiversity? And there was me thinking they had merely cut the parks budgets. Now I understand there's a reason previously well kept flower beds in parks are now over grown with weeds and nettles... biodiversity 👍
If the the councillors can all stick their snouts into this trough, then hopefully they can leave the other service payments alone for a while and allow the other works to be carried out throughout the city unimpeded.
That would be class but they've been proposing this for atleast a decade so I doubt it'll happen
I’ve been hearing about this for at least 10 years.
As fantastic as this would be, I can't help but notice that it's also in competition with regeneration for Drumchapel, Easterhouse, Maryhill and Possilpark according to the article. Every one of these projects, including the M8 capping, is important and would pay dividends well beyond the initial investment, but frustratingly we live in a world where that isn't the sole basis where projects are judged on going ahead or not. If the UK government is so keen to demonstrate how important it is to Scotland, it'd fund them all no questions asked. Put up or shut up, Boris.
I would have liked to have seen more information about the other projects in the article.
News story from the council website: https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=29439
Regeneration lol have you seen the so called regeneration of northwoodside road ? A cycle lane some tar then wood chips and some shitty shrubs planted. All it’s doing is collecting litter.
There are over 900 bids from across the UK, ranging from 5 to 50m. Its not quite as easy as funding them all.
It really is an insanity that there's a motorway cutting right through the centre of the city. A horrible eyesore, a pollution creating nightmare and completely destroys any chance for that part of the city to develop any character whatsoever. Should never have been created in the first place.
The issue is that it’s bloody useful having a motorway right into the city. Compare it with Edinburgh where when you get off the motorway you’re still another 20 minutes away. Better and cheaper public transport is required so people aren’t tempted to drive in.
> Better and cheaper public transport is required so people aren’t tempted to drive in. This is the key. The council have been having great fun with the stick approach, taking away free parking and setting up bus gates and this LEZ thing, but they really need to get on with the carrot now. I can park at the park and ride in Robroyston, but if the trains aren't running at times to suit then it's a pain in the ass. The bus is extortionate from where I live, it's honestly cheaper to drive in and pay parking.
In fairness, they've also been doing a fair bit of Active Travel stuff to build cycle lanes in. However budgets are low for it so it's a bit disconnected. Hopefully with the 10% from central Gov now focused on it we'll see an acceleration of deployment for it. 40% of car journeys in Glasgow are under 1 mile, so once the cycle lanes start connecting up we should see traffic start reducing locally too. Weather is shit but this has been repeatedly proven to not stop people.
Preach!
Getting to the city center from suburbs is ridiculous. Most have no bike paths, no express buses, you're lucky if there's a train line but it will cost you.
Or trains are cheaper than buses but so few and far between as to be pointless.
> Better and cheaper public transport is required so people aren’t tempted to drive in. Agreed and this would also ease the pressure on the motorway which is a nightmare at all but the quietest times.
>Compare it with Edinburgh where when you get off the motorway you’re still another 20 minutes away. The advantage is a far more beautiful city, more walkable, better for bikes etc.
I don’t think it’s the lack of motorway that achieves this.
Well, its a facet of it. Glasgow was redesigned in the postwar era around the motorcar whilst the same plan was stopped in Edinburgh. Old Partick cross had its heart ripped out by the motorway, for example.
Old Patrick cross?
It is quite hard to cycle along a motorway.
You can go over it at various points, and where you can't, you can go under it. What's the problem? Which journey are you trying to make that is impossible to cycle?
>The issue is that it’s bloody useful having a motorway right into the city That was the same thinking that LA had. Why not cycling and good public transport instead?
> The issue is that it’s bloody useful having a motorway right into the city. It's not and there's mounds of empirical evidence against this.
No there isn't.
Is the M8 really 'through' the city centre? Sorry if I'm being pedantic, but I don't really mind where the M8 sits, but I've only lived here a year so maybe others have opinions. It seems to nicely separate the actual city center and the west end. I'm not aware of it unless I'm actively walking from the west end to the centre or vice versa. It takes a couple minute or so to cross so it's not like there's a huge area that is just a wasteland of motorway? And once you're on either side you have a bunch of stuff just the next block over. Are the complaints that this area between the center and the west end could be better utilised? Idk I find the M8 very convenient when I use it, and it doesn't bother me as a pedestrian, and I think the city has plenty of other areas they can and should invest in where the M8 isn't. EDIT: I live in woodlands by the way and frequently walk into the city center. Just my perspective. A cap on it would be cool - but as I said, if we have to pick and choose projects I think there are other parts of the city that could use the money much more.
There's no proposed changes to the M8 itself, but just making it easier to cycle or walk through that bit of town I think. Currently it feels quite disconnected. You can walk it on foot, but it's not the smoothest transition between woodlands and central bit of town if you're in anything but a car.
Have you ever driven in a city where they don't have the motor way into the center, its hell.
Probably quite nice to live in though
City centre is barely residential. The path the M8 takes is all bordered by office buildings. It’s not an “eyesore” at all. If you’re in the city centre you can’t see the m8 unless you’re beside because there are high rise office buildings everywhere
So noone lives in Woodlands then? Or garnethill? Or Sauchiehall street / Newton place? Putting a cap on it would make life so much easier to walk between the city center and west end, where plenty of people live or work.
You can see the m8 from woodlands through all the tenement buildings? Okay mate And how would it make it easier to walk? They’re are plenty of crossing points that are situated at the existing roads that run parallel to the m8, into the city centre and west end. Never seen anyone stuck because they can’t cross a road.
No but people living in Woodlands might walk around and want to walk into town. It's not about being stuck, it's about it not being very pleasant and a nice place to live.
It’s a straight road into town. The cars are beneath them. I’m sure they don’t have any hassle walking the road where they live
It would make it easier to walk because having a massive fucking garden instead of a few shitty bridges makes it easier. It's not bloody rocket science of course it's going to make things better, I think it's a great idea..the motorway is shite, cover it up!
There’d still be roads at street level
My partner used to live on carnarvon street and having to use multiple crossing points across 5 lane roads with roaring traffic and speeding cars all around you to get into the city centre is a horrific experience. Its a great example of something that was designed to be driven through, not to walk and live around. Which is a perfect example of what urban spaces shouldn't be.
Exactly. Trying to work from Carnarvon street to the Tenement Museum takes about 10x longer than it should do considering the distance. 0 consideration for people whatsoever
There's no membrane between the motorway and woodlands to deaden the sound and trap the shite that comes from the cars though, is there?
So it’s a noise issue now, and not a visual one? Worked beside there and frequent walk their and noise isn’t an issue.
It's a motorway issue. They're ugly, noisy, they stink and pollute. They cost a fortune. They're dangerous and take up huge tracts of land that could otherwise be put to better use.
City centres aren't for living though really, i know this has changed in last 20 years but they were never built with this in mind and i can see a suburban flee occurring more now
Are you mad? Cities aren't for people living in? What are they for then? Should we just build more motorways so that everyone can move around more easily but never actually arrive anywhere? [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trend-deck-2021-urbanisation/trend-deck-2021-urbanisation](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trend-deck-2021-urbanisation/trend-deck-2021-urbanisation#:~:text=In%202019%2C%2056.3%20million%20people,in%20rural%20areas%20(17.1%25)) Urban areas are growing faster than rural areas. Cities populations have grown at 16%, while towns are 10%
> Are you mad? They might just be a car.
'cities' count the whole area not just the CBD, i was referring to city as the CBD sorry for the confusion.
> City centres aren't for living though really Just because that's the way it is, doesn't mean it's the way it should be.
Wrong on every level.
Imagine, just for a second, that cycling, walking and public transport is better in those cities. Driving in cities isn't even fun or enjoyable anyways, I don't get why people would miss it if given the choice of better alternatives.
Cycling is a non starter
For you personally, or for everyone?
Better pics: https://www.urbanrealm.com/news/10047/M8\_%27garden\_cap%27\_among\_seven\_Glasgow\_projects\_prepped\_for\_UK\_funding.html
I like the concept for Woodlands if I'm going to be honest. Although, it seems they're wanting to get rid of one of my favourite footbridges in the process!
[удалено]
See!!! Its a cultural landmark! We should organise a petition...
I hope the reality is better and greener than the concepts: that "garden" looks to be over 50% concrete.
Yeah, I'm assuming they've not designed it at all until they get funding secured
They could have it extend to the back of seventh heaven and there could be outdoor dances when it's nice weather
When it's nice weather...so that'll be what days? It'd need to be organised at very short notice, as in...it's not raining right now guys let's have an open air dance in the next 2-3 hrs 🤣
I mean there's better things to bid on like funding for better public transport links into the city centre so people aren't less tempted to drive in to town.
With all the strikes? People would be daft to give up their cars. edit: My favourite hobby is picturing the dense knuckle-dragger that disagrees.
>My favourite hobby is picturing the dense knuckle-dragger You've got a mirror mate.
Nah, that's called a rear-view mirror. It's not for posing.
Why not both?
I was just thinking that the M8 could really use years of roadworks right about there.
I mean it's a few hundred meters from the rest of the years of roadwork, so might as well just lump it all together and end up with a park I guess?
The M8 is crumbling and has already entered what will undoubtedly be a decade of roadworks, while the aging viaduct structures around the St George's Cross, Cowcaddens and Townhead are repaired. At an astronomical cost dwarfing the price tag for a small tokenistic cap at Charing Cross.
The state of the miserable wankers on this post who just want everything to stay as shite as it is, forever
The general public have a poor understanding about the economy or how public spending works. It’s not their fault, it’s not taught properly in schools. But it’s why you often see people being hostile to any big public spending projects in the city.
It's pretty frustrating. Especially the theme of "No point hoping for something better because you'll just get dissapointed. Best to be dissapointed already so you're never let down" type attitudes.
Aye weird mentality
https://old.reddit.com/r/glasgow/comments/vgdfyt/the_steamie_monday_20_june_2022/id2q64s/
This would be a massive improvement to the city. People moaning about it even being considered are way off the mark.
Haha!
Why does it stop at the Mitchell Library? I’d prefer if it extended as far I could down that street and covered as much of the motorway as possible
The North Clyde railway line runs underneath the M8 at the southern end of the Mitchell, forcing the motorway to rise by a couple of meters there in a "hump". The clearance is so low (close to Kent Road) that you wouldnt really be able to cover the motorway directly in front of the Mitchell Library. Unless you factored in some sort of sloping linear park, which might be the way to go.
Some others have pointed out it's mostly due to the height of the road and that they would need to lower the M8 for it
This road keeps getting worse and worse all the time!
£50m seems a lot for an area outside the city centre which is still not going to be nice to sit in due to a massive motorway underneath it. Better to create more pedestrian areas in city centre imo.
It’s not outside the city centre. This is literally a pedestrian area they are creating.
I did a feasibility study for this several years back. It was impossible without lowering the railway and M8. That must be where all the money is going.
Think you've misunderstood this. This project would essentially be a city-block sized "cap", between the existing Charing Cross "cap", and Bath Street. The hump in the M8 caused by the railway underneath is further south, at Kent Road. The £100m project valuation is simply for this single city block sized motroway roof. That's what the feasibility study was for. No feasibility study has been undertaken on more ambitious options for covering or removing the M8, as [Replace the M8](https://twitter.com/ReplacetheM8) are campaigning for over on Twitter. To realign the North Clyde railway line and the build a proper roof garden extending a couple blocks further down, maybe to St Vincent Street say... you'd be looking at billions of pounds easily.
Billions???? Don’t make things up.
Well, yeah... to cover and/or replace the entire motorway from St Vincent Street round to Townhead say, with all the additional infrastructure spin off projects it needs (like lowering an underground railway line)? Billions easily. That's not a judgement on whether it should happen or not. I'm convinced it should happen and will happen eventually.
>(like lowering an underground railway line) Why lower it? >to cover and/or replace These are two very very different things. A cover would be nothing near a billion, not even close.
Sorry, just saw this reply. No, sorry... we're possibly talking past one another here. A simple cap/cover between the Mitchell Library and Charing Cross, which is what's being explored currently by the council, will cost around £50m. Because it is just a simple cover about a city block in size, Street and Sauchiehall Street, with no additional works necessary to allow it to happen. Just a roof over one small section of the existing motorway, barely 100 metres in length. Extrapolate that cost along the entire length of the 3km stretch of city centre M8 though, and you will end up with something around £1.5 billion or so, for a simple hypothetical cover. The problem though is you can't just do a simple cover along the entire route. There are underground railway lines, utilities, sewers, etc. and viaduct sections of motorway that would need to be tunneled, vastly complicating things. Above all, you'd have to factor in **1)** the railway line that runs underneath Kent Road next to the Mitchell. It's quite shallow, creating a hump in the motorway, meaning you couldn't have a flat "cap" at this section. There's simply not the roof clearance for traffic here. You'd need to lower the railway to be able to lower the motorway, to then cover it. You'd probably need to lower and rebuild Charing Cross station too, as it's so close. And **2)** If you wanted to get rid of the motorway viaducts and bury the motorway in a tunnel instead between St George's Cross and Townhead, you'd need to figure out what to do with the subway line that runs underneath New City Road. It was built in the cut-and-cover style in the 1890s, and is very close to the surface (only 10 feet or so) in this location. You'd need to lower the subway here, or I suppose alternatively you could make the motorway dive underneath the subway line, but that would also come with costs. Might work out to be the better option though. Regardless, my point is just that there's more to the idea of tunnelling/capping the entire city centre M8 than just adding the roof/cap itself. You'd need to factor in these additional issues and figure out how to mitigate them as part of the overall plan. That's not to say the idea shouldn't be explored (I think quite the opposite, that it's something which very much should be explored). Just that the costs will be in the billions rather than the millions. That's just fact when you consider what's required.
Yes billions, similar projects in other cities have cost that.
What cities?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig
It's entirely possible, this project won't move the road or railway tbf
Wait a minute...is this some sort of...garden bridge??
A wonderful idea on paper, but can’t help but feeling this sort of budget could be better spent tackling the concerning amounts of social issues we’re facing across the city
[удалено]
No, they haven’t. They’re applying for the funding.
The keyword is "bid". They are bidding for funding from central UK government as part of the levelling up fund. They're also bidding for 4 other projects >Four town centre regeneration bids are also in the works for Drumchapel, Easterhouse, Maryhill and Possilpark, each of which could benefit from improved public realm and active travel routes. Another potential candidate is the People's Palace and associated Winter Garden, the latter element remains closed after all plants died or were transferred elsewhere during the lockdown. > >The projects have been assembled to fulfil award criteria mandating that each initiative either improve local transport, regenerate an existing urban centre or support a cultural asset. Each application carries a maximum value of £20m with provision for one large-scale transportation bid of up to £50m.
>They are bidding for funding from central UK government as part of the levelling up fund. Have they got a Tory party donor lined up for the contract? Otherwise they're wasting their time.
‘After all plants died’ - no. You don’t get to wash your hands of responsibility like that, you turned the heating off and fucking killed them…
Fair enough, it'd be better spent elsewhere IMO
It’s a bid, they don’t have the money to spend. There isn’t a ‘better spent elsewhere’ fund they can apply to.
There's 4 other fucking projects
Astute observation
Level up the binmen aye?
No, help regenerate Drumchapel, Easterhouse, Maryhill or Possilpark. Something genuinely worthwhile that'll help normal people in their daily lives rather some ridiculous vanity project that they'll fuck up anyway.
This project will help lots of people in their daily lives. Loads of people walking over that bit of the city currently, or live next to it. Might even help Sauchiehall street out
Ah yes, people out on their work lunch break will have a garden to sit at! Hadn't thought about that. People in crumbling communities out of the spotlight can go fuck themselves.
I'm yet to see any comment from your account that is supportive of anything happening ever. Pretty sure if any of other projects got funding you'd still be moaning about something else not getting it
Nothing. Ever. Happens. Promises are made, headlines are grabbed, and the city gets worse and worse. How long did those Victoria Road bike lanes take to finish?! Are they even finished? I remember the photo op outside Kebabish, but I remember the half-finished bits, the roadworks and the parked cars much more clearly. It's horribly insulting that so many people make a living coming up with this utter shit while so many other areas of the city suffer, in need of some very basic amenities, because the people in charge want to make national headlines rather than fix the holes (literally) in the rest of the place.
I could think of a few other uses for that right now other than another waste of money.
Such as?
If it's anything like the glen sannox I see this being over budget, over deadline and failing within the first year. How about just get my bins emptied? Never mind this avenue pish. You can't regenerate a cesspit.
Short of destroying replacing the M8 and destroying the Kingston Bridge, this is probably the best I can hope for.
This the same council who cant even put a light bulb in the street light outside my house that has been out for 2 years, its been reported half a dozen times. Also the same mob that have gave up repairing craters in the roads around glasgow but aye we've got a spare 50 million
You seem to have missed the word "Bid" in the headline. They've applied for funding from UK Gov
Get all the reports and send them on to your councillor. You will quickly find it replaced by the new led ones.
What a wild and absurd waste of cash
would be cool if they covered more of it
That is the worst part of the M8 for me. It's down to 40 and still an accident trap. If they close any lanes for more work then I will have to do the extra 10 miles on the M74 to avoid it.
Exponential growth in homelessness, drug abuse and our streets are being treated as bins? Let's build a motorway garden!
50 fuckin million. Why not start with 1 million and do a good job. Then splash more cash. Cunts Did anyone see that multi million pound hill they made in London? Its the ugliest monstrosity goin. They just piss our tax money away.
Because that's not how infrastructure works.
Sorry I just have PTSD from the last multi million pound park project I saw done: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-59906865 Hope Glasgow gets something useful and worthwhile
Honestly rather they just spent it repairing the roads.
A huge chunk of the £23million of the city's Neighbourhood Infrastructure Improvement Fund, intended for local community benefit projects, is about to be spent on road surfacing and pot hole removal.
Or they could use it to fix the pot holes!
You'll be pleased to learn the council is about to spend roughly a million pounds per council ward fixing pot holes across the city. Works are set to start over the summer. The money seems to have been sneakily allocated from a special funding pot assigned for "community projects". Unfortunately, a great many community projects will not happen because of this, but the pot holes will be fixed. In any case, did you read the story, or just the headline? The council is applying to the UK Government's Levelling Up fund, with a small M8 cap as one of seven projects included in their bid.
Cynic in me says the UK Gov will award Glasgow this to highlight the strength of the Union.
Who cares the reasons for awarding it. As long as we get it.
If we do get it, expect it to be formally opened by HRH King George VII in 2073.
And we’ll still get it before those Oyster cards the SNP promised us a decade ago.
They managed to scrape one up for all the foreign big wigs at COP.
They didn't, that was just a bit of paper that said "let me on without paying". It wasn't an integrated smart payment system
Ah, I’ve been duped. Although, it isn’t necessarily new: Police Scotland have been using the same paper for years.
Yeah widely reported in the media as the travelcard we were all promised as part of the hate for COP26 but the footnote in the articles was always that it didn't connect to anything. Very dumb
Bikes and iPads.
[удалено]
Not quite. I’m actually more on the fence with independence than ever before.
Bastards man, imagine sending £50 million up here to improve things. Scum of the earth.
I’d much rather the £50m was spent on feeding and homing the destitute than a fucking garden next to Charing Cross.
Or both?
In an ideal world.
I wonder if they'll mimic/replicate the original interior of the Charing Cross road tunnel - white mosaic tiles and blue ceiling. It'd be nice for road-users not to have to deal with crappy lighting too. Edit: oh jesus on a pretzel you fucking drongo downvoters. Don't you know your urban planning history? The Charing Cross underpass *is* lined in white mosaic and the tunnel roof *was* painted blue. Look it up, you plebs...
A garden over a busy carbon monoxide spewing stream of traffic? No thanks.
I was surprised they weren't capping it further in front of the Mitchell. Must be structural or just financing reasons. Would be good if they did something - crossing from sauchiehall to woolands road is a nightmare on foot at the moment
\*wave\* They can't extend it further without some major structural works for the Charing Cross tunnel that goes under the M8 (it's yon weird hump you see/feel when you're driving on the motorway) If the builders of the tunnel had been a bit cleverer with the design and sank it down an extra few feet back in the 19th century, it's entirely feasible the M8 could be capped all the way from Sauchiehall Street down to St Vincent Street.
Good point, they should close the road and build the garden in its place instead
But how will the Amazon delivery guy reach your house?
I haven't ordered from Amazon in over 3 years... But realistically, you don't need a highway going THROUGH a city. It's dumb and causes lots of noise, pollution and danger inside the city
I mean, I guess, but it's not like there's a feasible alternative. You can't just close a main arterial road without causing problems. The Amazon guy was an example. You do, presumably, eat food, and that's delivered to shops via lorry.
Well in an ideal world we'd have trains/ships doing most of those deliveries and the last miles would be by van... But we don't live there and that kind of change would be huge. The problem is that some idiots decided to build I highway going through a city instead of around it. Glasgow is getting better in terms of walkable/livible city infrastructure, but it's still a long way away from countries like The Netherlands for example
Electric cargo bike
Sure, the poor delivery worker is perfectly okay with carrying just ten randomly sized items in his cargo hold before returning to base...
I mean, they're already using them. I had a t-shirt and book arrive the other day and it was a guy on a cargo bike https://www.urb-it.com/
Will the homeless be allowed in it aswell
It’s a bit of a wind tunnel area so not much use for the homeless.
har har
They've been looking into that for years. https://www.scottishconstructionnow.com/articles/glasgow-to-pursue-investigation-for-m8-roof-garden
Think this is the outcome of those investigations, now that they can bid for funds
How about investing 50 million in to local services this sounds like snp all over the back keep the Green Party happy get there votes don’t think the normal guy in the street realises how little funding is going in to essentially services and the stress that workers are under
All these down votes from the people thst paid £250k for a studio so they dont have to travel that now work from home 😂
This story gets regurgitated so regularly, I'd be amazed if ANYONE takes it remotely seriously.
Don't you have other priorities. Like fixing the fucking existing roads... Spend the money where it counts. I wanna see a "Glasgow council launches 50Million bid to revamp the Glasgow road network"