Construction of the M74 around Bothwell &Uddingston area 1964 - 66

Since the days of Telford, most traffic from England to Scotland has traveled the Carlisle to Glasgow route; Over the past 15 years significant improvements have been made to this road to cope with the considerable increase in traffic, although these improvements produced a satisfactory route from the edge to the outskirts of the Vanisher industrial belt it became evident that here in this

area

densely populated, similar improvements would be inadequate to maintain the rapid flow of traffic through the

area

and contribute to industrial progress. In the early 1960s a special road would be required. A large-scale traffic study focused on Hamilton and based on traffic growth in the 1980s confirmed the need for a highway in 1961.

Preliminary planning and design was carried out on contoured plans obtained from an exhaustive aerial survey of areas likely to be affected during planning. proceeded in the design office flight investigations were carried out an extensive series of test holes were made from the rock and clay samples obtained engineers were able to prepare a detailed record of the type of terrain that would be encountered along the highway line A large amount of information obtained from the fundamental studies was then analyzed and the final design was prepared. The highway was designed based on the principle of fluid alignment. This principle depends on the coordination of horizontal and vertical curves and guarantees a pleasant and safe road layout.

Extensive use of models was made. To ensure site and landscaping safety requirements have been met, the chosen route generally follows the Clyde Valley east of the existing main road 74 from Blackwood, the motorway line bypasses Locke Hall and crosses the Avon Rivers. and Clyde between Hamilton and Motherwell and then bypassing the stone addition, joining A 74 at Maryville. Construction of the highway began in June

1964

. The contractor's first operation was to clear the view of all obstacles to make way for the earth-moving machines. Simple but effective tree felling methods, along with specialized equipment to handle logs quickly. In the cleared woodland areas very few buildings were affected but some families had to be disturbed and their houses demolished due to the undulating nature of the countryside, large scale earthworks were required with extensive excavations in cuttings and the formation of large To ensure the stability of the road embankments, large quantities of peat, silty clay and other unsuitable materials were removed and replaced with suitable free-draining material, although the excavated material was not suitable for road

construction

, it was used to fill and reclaim Marsha land for future agricultural use, nearly nine million cubic yards.

Both the suitable and unsuitable clay had to be moved in less than three years. This is a large-scale movement to successfully achieve such mass excavation. Organization of the highest level was required employing all forms of up-to-date manure moving equipment. Adverse weather and generally difficult conditions severely tested the capabilities of even the best plants, but cooperation and mutual assistance at all levels maintained constant 24-hour work moving 14 to 18 tons of time machines. Traders like these scrapers near Bothell soon transformed the landscape and the eventual profile of the roadway began to take shape from soft excavation rock of variable texture and the composition had to be excavated from deep cuts the rock was generally shaped with the information obtained from the site investigations but there were areas where it had been severely fractured Due to the settlement of the former Uncharted Co works, fortunately the works were concentrated in one area, but being close to the road formation, caused The road was prone to future collapses, so they had to be tracked, broken and backtracked, this operation increased the volume of excavated rock.

Beyond the estimated quantity, however, good use was made of the excavated rock in other parts of the site, in a project of this magnitude it is essential that the movement of materials is carried out quickly and efficiently, the enormous fleet of dump trucks required placed a greater burden on the already congested public road system, the solution was rapid transit roads built within the line of the eventual highway, allowing

construction

traffic to travel at speeds of up to 50 miles per hour at Hamilton Lowe Parks. Mineral subsidence over the years had lowered the ground level by approximately 17 feet and made the area susceptible to flooding to prevent erosion.

The base layers of the highway embankment in this area were constructed from excavated rock. Stacked foundations were a necessary feature of bridge construction here at a steel-cased seven-to-three interchange. Sit-ups were used. The stepped casings of these 70 and one hundred ton capacity piles were assembled on site from ten and twelve foot sections to their final length. The casing is quite flexible before driving, however, a stepped steel mandrel is placed inside the casing. This provides the necessary support and distributes the pile driving force to each section during driving. Nearly 1,200 such piles are required in the northern section of the project.

Driven concrete cased-in-situ piles were used in Great Bridge and on the sides of the bridges. Designed to carry frontage roads over or under the highway with this shape of pile, the casing was constructed from short lengths of reinforced concrete tube to provide adequate bearing capacity for the bridge foundation. Many of the piles had to be driven until Rach's careful control. The load capacity of the finished piles was maintained by load testing on selected piles at each bridge site. Board files were used on isolated bridge sites where fewer piles were required and the restricted work space favored the use of lighter, more manageable equipment.

The hydraulically operated woodpile. Master was used to install protective piles at the Pavan Toll Bridge site, allowing excavations for the bridge foundation to be carried out with minimal interference with adjacent properties to allow for the uninterrupted flow of traffic from the highway through the labyrinth of existing roads, railways and rivers. and to adequately provide for the passage of vehicles and pedestrians at the crossings, 42 bridges of different designs were required for aesthetic and safety reasons. Every effort was made to keep bridge supports to a minimum, but generally economics prevailed and most structures were multi-span. The design was constructed with cast-in-place reinforced concrete.

The design of all bridges, except some minor accommodation bridges and pedestrian bridges, was based on the Ministry of Transport's HB standard load criteria. The crossing of the River Clyde near Bothwell required a different treatment for the motorway passage. Faced with this significant obstacle, it was necessary to design the Wraith Bridge with long spans of composite steel deck, which meant the use of deep box section steel girders as the main structural elements of the deck. These 140-foot-long beams were composed of large prefabricated units transported to the site where they were welded together and ready for launch. Launching the girders was a complicated operation and to fit into the main construction program it was necessary to proceed regardless of whether the first section was opened in winter, which increased the construction team's difficulties, but when the second section was dragged through the river conditions were most favorable at all times a high degree of precision was maintained to ensure correct alignment and positioning on pairs and seeds an electric train passing through Addington crossing every 20 minutes imposed severe restrictions on the design and construction of the bridge to transport the motorway over the railway the obvious answer was precast construction the structural platform was made up of prestressed concrete beams the prestressed beams manufactured in a Scottish precast concrete factory and with a length of between 30 and 40 feet were erected and quickly and easily positioned over the tracks to the abutments and piers at the northern end of the project, the two-level bridge at Maryville is the main feature in the compact design of the interchange linking the M74 with the planned M73.

Large separate directional interchanges require extensive areas of land and simplify the construction of connecting roads by a ratio of seven to three, the course of the River Avon had to be altered once the Aven Bridge spans were completed, the river It was diverted into its new channel and the old river bed was re-laid during the winter seasons of

1964

and 1965, construction work was more or less halted due to adverse weather conditions. Major flooding was experienced, especially in low-lying areas around the River Avon and in Hamilton Lowe Parks adjacent to the River Clyde at the design stage and hydraulic modeling investigation had indicated that flooding and this scale could occur.

The information obtained from the model analysis was used; However, in determining the economics for the Aben and short bridges and safe levels for motorway embankments and access roads, the flood caused serious delays to the temporary bridge. The works suffered serious damage and the plant was abandoned, although the temporary works were negatively affected. The permanent embankment with its rock-filled base easily resisted the eroding effects of the flood water when the water receded. Damage to existing river banks was examined and the effect of future flooding was minimized. Clyde and Avon obstacles were removed and existing gravel and tile beds were removed or improved to provide better hydraulic channels where required and, in particular, along the Avon Diversion Channel, sheet steel piles were driven to act as protection against future erosion, although almost 5 million cubic yards were required.

Of good structural material was obtained from the highway cuts to complete the embankments another four and a half million cubic meters had to be found elsewhere. One of the main sources of Baro was an extensive steel mill waste dump located near the highway line near the mother world, along with local sources of culinary fires, this material provided the necessary balance. Bridge approach embankments were carefully composed of specially selected, well-compacted granular materials to protect against the differential settlement that occurred in final road paving in some northern areas. section of the works the depth of inadequate material beneath the embankments made their total removal economically and practically impossible.

Their embankments were built with pulverized fuel ash, a waste product from coal-fired power plants, this material is ideal for such situations because it is lighter than clay. or fire, requires less support from underlying strata to ensure adequate compaction and structural soundness, even the tallest embankments, some as high as 60 feet, were constructed 12 inches thick and each layer is carefully rolled and graded before extending the next layer at the same time. The side slopes were carefully leveled and trimmed to their final shape, not always in straight geometric lines, but often in variable slopes and vehicles contoured so that the finished road would blend better with the surrounding landscape.

The design of both flexible and rigid pavement constructions was based on Highway Research Laboratory Highway Note 29 after the general earthworks were completed, the road formation level was leveled to line and level and placed the subbase. The subbase was composed of two layers each six inches thick compacted when the bottom layer burned. cholera burned or steel mill waste had been placed and compacted the top layer of processed frost-resistant slag was spread, graded and rolled to the profile to evaluate its performance in Scottish conditions a two-mile stretch of pavement was constructed of rigid concrete using the gun turret on the Zimmerman Paver ramp formwork: the first use of this machine in Scotland.

The 11-inch thick by 27-foot-wide air-entrained concrete slab was placed over a polyethylene membrane in a single operation without the use of visual formwork and at a speed of approximately 200 feet.per mechanical hour. Brushes were used to texture the road surface and fought for good holding qualities. Finally, the surface was sealed with a self-sprayed curing membrane. The writing quality of the finished pavement was verified by using a profilometer. The construction of the main road was carried out in flexible materials. Composite Base Construction, the seven inch thick lean concrete subbase with an average aggregate to cement ratio of eighteen to one was placed on the subbase prepared by mechanical tire blown ox spreaders and compacted to an average density of one hundred and forty pounds. per cubic foot with 10-ton vibratory and smooth wheel rollers to complete the flexible base, the lean concrete was covered with a layer of dense bituminous macadam three inches thick, the road was now almost ready to receive its final surface of four inches thick to thick and hot. rolled asphalt at the junctions at seventy one and seven two three, however, it had been decided to provide heating under the road, regardless of the access road connections, expanded metal mats were placed along the entire surface of the roadway secured in position so that the final The asphalt surface could be laid by machine and connected to a low voltage electrical supply in winter.

Heated nets will keep these sections of roadway free of snow and ice. The surface of the roadways was completed with the placement of a 1 and a half inch thick wear layer. hot rolled asphalt layer The final appearance, safety and writing quality of the rolling surface were achieved by spreading and rolling pre-coded chips of Cretan white granite to provide a high anti-slip quality on December 2, 1966, a cold and windy, mr. Payton of Baptists Shaw and Morton invited the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Hon William Ross MP, to officially open the first stage of the m74 mr. Ross praised contractors and consulting engineers for their combined efforts to complete on time the first stage of what he described as the type of highway we need, essential for transporting commercial traffic if we are to support the growth of a new industry and even elderly.

This great new road, he said, will help meet Scotland's great new needs. The m74 will provide an important and major link in the motorway system being built in central Scotland in In the short time it takes you to travel the m74, you may not be fully aware of the complexities of the fluid alignment, the aesthetics of the bridge's design and the many precautions built in for its safety, but when you realize that you have traveled 15 miles in just many minutes without hassle, congestion or monotony, perhaps then you will appreciate the skill of the engineers and the effort of the builders.