Glasgow Inner Ring Road - Abandonment

Abandonment

Although the Monklands and Renfrew Motorways were constructed (in 1975 and 1977 respectively), plans for the other two sides of the ring along with those for the Maryhill Motorway to the northwest were all shelved in 1980, amidst public protests against their construction on the basis of the damage done to the environment and appearance of the city. In particular, the Charing Cross section came in for harsh criticism when many properties in Anderston and Garnethill were demolished to facilitate construction; critics condemned the works as a "massacre". When the East and South Flanks were eventually abandoned, the UK government confirmed that the scheme would be the last motorway built through a city in the United Kingdom.

A number of visible loose ends were left behind because of the abandonment. Amongst the most infamous examples are the access to the unbuilt south section at Tradeston which was left as a "ski-jump" (the road abruptly terminates in mid-air), the tangle of slip-roads at Tradeston, and the two infamous "Bridges to Nowhere"; a concrete podium over the Charing Cross section that was left empty for nearly 20 years before finally acting as a base for an office building constructed in the early 1990s, and a pedestrian bridge over the road that terminated in mid air as a result of the incompleteness of the adjacent Anderston Centre commercial complex. Signs saying "Ring Road" were still displayed both above and on the approaches to the central section until the late 1980s, when the route officially became continuous with the M8.

The M8 is consistently jammed at rush hour, with the Kingston Bridge having to cope with vast amounts of traffic that would have been redirected to other roads had the ring been completed; this traffic load has necessitated extensive roadworks on the bridge amplifying congestion. The motorway is derided in popular culture, with Glasgow-based pop band Deacon Blue's album Raintown largely forming an attack on the inner-city atmosphere of the road, and including a picture of it cutting through the city on the rear cover.