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Project has been
completed 4 months ahead of schedule
 "The
opening of the Three Towns By Pass brings to a conclusion over 25 years of
campaigning by the Labour party in this constituency " said local Labour MSP
Allan Wilson.
"Ever since I joined the Labour Party back in the seventies we have sought
this level of investment in our local roads infrastructure but until now we
have never been able to achieve it. Throughout the eighties and early
nineties there was a complete dearth of road building in Cunninghame North
and when Labour came to power in 1997 we inherited a Roads Budget of
precisely NIL.." said Mr Wilson.
"Our response was to commission a roads review to identify the five projects
out of the seventeen candidates throughout Scotland which were proposed as
being most in need of the new investment then being mooted. As the plans for
A78 Three Towns By Pass had existed, on paper at least, for twenty five
years it was ideally suited for fast tracking in the Review. When I was
elected in 1999 I impressed on the then Transport Minister Sarah Boyack the
importance of the new investment in the Three Towns not only to relieve
congestion and bring necessary environmental improvement but also crucially
to open up the ports of Ardrossan and Hunterston to economic development to
create new employment opportunities in the area."
"Ayrshire was to do particularly well when the Review was to reach it's
conclusions in 2000. As well as winning the £25m investment in the A78 By
Pass, one of the other four projects chosen was the upgrading to motorway
status of the A77 Glasgow to Ayr route, work on which is currently underway.
From there being NO investment in Ayrshire roads we now had two major
projects within thirty miles of each other."
"It has taken us four years but now the road is complete and the people of
the Three Towns and beyond will realise the benefits, hopefully for many
more years to come. The new road will help alleviate congestion and
community dislocation along the High Road, particularly at peak periods. It
will bring environmental benefit to local air quality and improve road
safety by re-routing through traffic out of a built up area. But most
importantly, it will open up the area to future economic development and
help bring back jobs and prosperity to this part of Scotland."
" I am delighted the project has been completed four months ahead of
schedule and that is testimony to the contractors and their workforce who
have stuck by their task and diligently delivered an early Christmas present
to the people of the Three Towns"
"My task now is to secure more new investment in the A737 to complement the
£4m upgrading work proposed at the Roadhead Roundabout, Head Street junction
and the Den re-alignment. A Dalry By Pass is now my priority and that will
help not only alleviate congestion in the town of Dalry but also further
open up this area to more investment in better jobs, housing and wider
economic development" concluded Mr Wilson.
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