As part of Transport Scotland’s strategic trunk road maintenance programme, Scotland TranServ will deliver a £1.8m programme of protection works to the M74 supporting piers located on the A723 between Hamilton and Motherwell.

Scotland TranServ will complete the 17 week programme of work under two phases. The first phase will run from Sunday 13^th of October until the end of November, ahead of the busy Christmas shopping period, and phase two from the middle of January until the middle of March 2020.

Bunmi Adedire, Scotland TranServ’s Senior Network Bridges Engineer said:

“Scotland TranServ is working in consultation with local authorities, emergency services and key stakeholders in the scheduling of this essential programme of work. The project will involve the construction of 3 metre high in-situ reinforced concrete collars above ground level within the central reservation and the installation of additional vehicle barriers on the adjacent piers located on the verges.

“These will provide increased protection of the supporting piers. These new in-situ collars will be installed at two locations on the A723. In total, there will be provision of column protection on 4 structures including supports on the verges and central reservation.”

The works will be carried out under a managed programme of lane closures, with two lanes running in each direction remaining open at all times. Suitable measures are proposed to provide vehicle breakdown recovery within the works area. To protect the health and safety of our workers and the travelling public, the speed limit through the work area will also be reduced to 30mph.

Appropriate Traffic and Pedestrian Management will be in place on the A723 between Motherwell and Hamilton between the following dates, under a phased programme of work as below:

• Sunday 13^th October until Saturday 30^th of November 2019
• Sunday 12^th January until Sunday 15^th March 2020

It is possible that some night time total closures particularly at the M74 off-slips may be required to facilitate safe working - though these are to be kept to a minimum. We will keep drivers updated throughout.

Drivers using the A723 and M74 Junction 6 are advised to allow some additional time for their journeys. Live trunk road information is available by visiting trafficscotland.org, or by following @trafficscotland on Twitter.