The M77 is a relatively new motorway forming the main road south from Glasgow, zipping traffic in and out of the city and bypassing the boring old A77.
For about twenty years it existed only as a tiny spur, joining the M8 at a huge free-flowing junction. It was first extended to bypass the urban sections of the A77, and then pushed further out to relieve the accident-prone rural A77.
The length through the Glasgow suburbs that opened in the 1990s was built almost exactly on the line proposed back in the mid-1960s, with only changes to junction layouts separating the two proposals.
The second (and probably final) extension opened in Spring 2005, and runs from junction 5 to 8. It replaces a narrow four-lane single carriageway road through open countryside, built in the 1930s, which was well past its sell-by date. It had claimed countless lives and the new motorway route is many times faster, safer and more efficient. The motorway now connects to the existing grade-separated Kilmarnock Bypass.