Where is it?
On the eastern side of Glasgow - right where the M8 meets the M73.
Can you show me that on a map?
When did it open?
Well, that depends on what you mean by "open". It is due to be completed in 2017, but opened to traffic in Autumn 2016.
What makes this a pathetic motorway?
Well, for a start, it's the shortest motorway in the United Kingdom - beating the previous record holder (the A635(M)) by being about half the length, being roughly 300m long against approximately 600m. It's so short that you can literally see the one end from the other.
Not bad at all eh?
I guess not. So what's the story?
It's all tied in with the M8, as you might expect. For many years, the M8 was in several sections. In 1967, the eastern part of the motorway between J6 and J5 opened to the east of Newhouse, near Airdrie. Then in 1980, the western part reached J8, at Baillieston, with the expectation that the two sections would be connected up fairly quickly, but in the meantime, the A8 between the two junctions remained. Then... nothing. Nothing happened whatsoever.
The A8 between the two sections of motorway was a dual carriageway, so despite the lower capacity, and the clearly lower standards, it just never got to the top of the pile. There were a few false starts here and there, vague proposals that got dropped, but nothing.
Then finally, in early 2011, the paperwork around the upgrade was finally published, and it looked to be back on. In 2014, the contracts for the work was placed, and work started in early 2015.
OK, so why the A8(M)?
Well, part of the M8 work involves upgrading the A8 just to the east of Baillieston Interchange, and creating a new A8 a little to the north. So instead, all roads meeting the large roundabout at Baillieston will be motorways, which means that the roundabout itself should be a motorway, and the new link road that connects the roundabout back to the A8 should be a motorway - hence the A8(M) is the new link road.
Of course, this is Scotland where they do this sort of thing properly - if this was in England they would undoubtedly leave the large roundabout as an all-purpose road instead, and pointlessly create a link that goes exclusively to a motorway as an all-purpose road because "you can turn around at the large roundabout" instead of keeping non-motorway traffic out of an interchange they don't need to be on.
As examples of the "wrong" English way of doing things, see the former A6144(M) and A46(M), as well as the spur at M5 junction 20; and possibly the silliest one of them all: M40 J14.
Can I see some photographs now?
Can I comment on this motorway?
Yes! Contact me and I'll put them here!
Have any other visitors commented?
Not yet, no.