You may remember in March and April this year we ran a major campaign on and offline for improvement of the two Blantyre sliproads which lead on and off the A725 East Kilbride Expressway.
This followed multiple instances of vehicle drivers dangerously travelling in the WRONG direction on the busy East Kilbride Expressway, which sadly on one occasion in 2018 resulted in the tragic death of a young motorbiker. It was time to intervene.
Public Concerns
A whopping 966 local people took part signing up to our petition which, along with our report was duly sent off to South Lanarkshire Council in May. We’ve now had a letter response acknowledging the petition and promising action.
SLC Response & Action
The delay in the response was due to a necessary meeting between SLC, Police Scotland and Scotland Transerv (who maintain the trunk road network on behalf of Transport Scotland)
A725 Whistleberry Road Sliproad (Low Blantyre)
SLC will :
– Trim/Cut back existing foliage currently obstructing view and
– Erect a larger, more visible, replacement no turn sign on the side road.
Transerv will :
– Replace larger no entry signs and
– Paint additional carriageway markings to highlight ‘left turn only’ on Whistleberry Road on approach to the slip
A725 Hamilton Road at Stoneymeadow (High Blantyre)
SLC will:
– Trim /Cut back existing foliage on approach to junction
– Refresh Carraigeway taper / hatching on approach to the dual carriageway section along with a new ‘keep left’ Bollard from the Blantyre direction.
– Refresh “No Entry” Road markings at the slip road.
– Paint a new deflection island and turn left arrow on Stoneymeadow Road at Hamilton Road junction to encourage vehicles to turn left.
– Install ‘left turn only’ signage on Stoneymeadow Road at Hamilton Road junction.
– Replacement of larger, new ‘no entry’ signs on Hamilton Road.
– Create painted chevrons on Hamilton Road as “no drive” zone.
Transerv will:
-Replace ‘No entry’ signs at the slip road
With vehicles STILL being observed turning up the sliproads in the wrong direction even this week, this planned work can’t come soon enough! The works are expected to start just as soon as the procurement of new traffic signs is complete.
Seems we have a result! Thank you to everybody who took part in this campaign. Thanks also to Cllr Mo Razzaq for his concurrent efforts in getting this approved.
