Hill Reaches Into His Pocket to Benefit Lanarkshire Commuters

Commuters and Strathclyde Business Park tenants will soon no longer have to face daily congestion when approaching the Shawhead Interchange as it has been announced that work has finally commenced on an upgrade to the Shawhead approach.

The long-awaited road improvement will see the A725 continuing as two lane carriageway all the way to Shawhead, removing the current bottleneck as motorists squeeze down into one lane.

Scheduled for completion on September 14, the majority of the upgrade will be financed by William Hill, managing director of HF Developments and owner of Strathclyde Business Park, who has been campaigning extensively on behalf of Lanarkshire commuters for more than five years.

As soon as it was realised that the Executive’s upgrade at the Shawhead Interchange was ineffective in reducing the traffic congestion, Hill embarked on a campaign for the full improvements promised by Wendy Alexander in March 2002 to be carried out.

Traffic signals will control the flow of traffic onto the interchange from the A725 and North Road, Bellshill, and the exising road surface will be replaced and an anti-slip surface put down.

The improvement to the A725 follows hot on the heels of a recently completed £6.2million upgrade of the surrounding road infrastructure by HF Developments. This extensive upgrade project began in October 2006 and involved the relocation of water, gas and telecom services, the introduction of a new slip road off the northbound A725 and construction of new roundabouts on the Diamond Interchange – enabling traffic to flow more freely in and out of Bellshill North Industrial Estate, Righead Industrial Estate and Strathclyde Business Park.

The existing roundabout at the entrance to the Business Park was re-modelled into a much larger, signalised junction, to facilitate traffic flow both out of the Park and onto the A725.

Hill said: “It’s great to finally see work commence on an upgrade that will benefit the wider Lanarkshire public. This is a notoriously busy junction and I am delighted that after five years of personal campaigning to the highest levels of the Scottish Executive, action has finally been taken to alleviate congestion and allow traffic to flow more freely and safely towards the Shawhead Interchange.

“Our extensive upgrade programme was a resounding success and has greatly improved the flow on traffic in and around the business park. Our sponsorship of the costs of installing the signalised junction at the A725 and North Road, demonstrates our commitment to improving the services for the wider Lanarkshire public.’

Notes to Editors: Strathclyde Business Park

Strathclyde Business Park is owned by HF Developments.  Well established as one of Scotland's most successful business locations, it is situated in 155 acres of mature parkland near Bellshill, Lanarkshire. The Park provides over 1.4 million sq ft / 130,060 sq m of business and lifestyle space to some of Scotland’s top companies, including Scottish Power, Virgin Media, Woolwich Plc, Camelot, and William Grants Distillers. Over 6,000 people are currently employed at the Park.

The site Masterplan provides for a further 500,000 sq ft / 46,450 sq m of accommodation, which will bring an anticipated 4,000 extra jobs to the Park. Located in the heart of the Central Belt, the Park is minutes from the M8, M74 and M80, providing excellent access across Scotland and further afield.

For more information on the Park, and its location, accommodation, facilities and amenities, please visit our website: www.strathclydebusinesspark.com