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Title: MOTORWAY 74

Reference number: 4994

Date: 1963 - 1966

Production company: Richard Jones Film Unit, Motherwell in collaboration with Babtie, Shaw and Morton, Information Department

Sound: sound

Original format: 16mm

Colour: col

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 29.02 mins

Description: A technically detailed record of the construction of the M74 motorway connecting Glasgow to Carlisle. Discusses the many obstacles faced by civil engineers in creating the motorway and ends with the opening of the first phase by then Secretary of State for Scotland, William Ross MP.

Note: A Guntert & Zimmerman slipform paver is used for the first time in Scotland to create an experimental stretch of road along the new M74 motorway.

Credits: Road Authority: Scottish Development Department (Roads Division). Consulting Engineers: Babtie, Shaw & Morton, Chartered Civil Engineers, Glasgow

Shotlist: opening title, superimposed over gvs M74 motorway (1.02) chart plotting traffic density, using data from early road survey of 1960, based on Hamilton (1.18) ints planning and design office where civil engineers make preliminary investigations (1.34) shot of site investigations where trial borings made on site to indicate type of ground (2.08) ints design office where final design and models are prepared (2.45) c/u diagram of chosen route for motorway through Clyde Valley (3.09) gvs construction work, including tree felling and house demolition (4.21) gvs earthworks on excavations of cuttings and large embankments (5.24) shots of reclaimed marshy ground where excess soil was used; l/s and m/s caterpillar machines earth moving near Bothwell (7.10) gvs rock being excavated (7.32) c/u diagrams of old mine workings (7.41) gvs backfilling old mine workings to secure safety (8.30) shots of dump trucks moving along specially built 'haul roads' following eventual line of motorway (8.54) gvs Hamilton Low Parks and excavated rock being used to prevent future erosion and flooding (9.12) gvs piled foundations being laid for bridge construction from reinforced concrete tube and steel (11.19) load tests are carried out on selected piles (12.09) hydraulically operated installation of protective sheet piling at Powerburn (?) Toll Bridge (12.28) gvs bridge support being constructed from reinforced concrete (14.00) Raith Bridge crossing Clyde near Bothwell, constructed in long spans of composite steel deck and girders (15.29) shot of electric train passing through Uddingston junction and construction of motorway over railway from pre-stressed concrete beams (16.11) construction work on two level bridge at Maryville junction (16.29) gvs work involved in changing direction of River Avon (17.06) gvs flooding on River Avon and Hamilton Low Parks delaying construction work, and steel sheet piling erected to prevent future erosion (18.56) lorries complete embankments with steelworks waste and colliery blaes in Motherwell (20.16) approach embankments to bridges are completed with pulverised fuel ash (21.38) c/u diagrams detailing flexible and rigid pavement constructions (21.48) gvs levelling of road and sub-base layer (22.59) gvs slip form paver machinery creating two mile stretch of rigid concrete pavement, shots of carriageway construction and capping with dense bitumen macadam and hot asphalt (24.50) construction shots of under road heating in slip road connections, to keep road free of snow and ice (25.36) shots of surfacing with asphalt and pre-coated chipping granite chippings (26.16) gvs opening ceremony for first phase of motorway on 2nd December 1966 with shots of Mr Paton of Babtie, Shaw & Morton, Chartered Civil Engineers and Secretary of State for Scotland, William Ross MP; gvs cars driving onto motorway (27.04) gvs road and diagrams of motorway systems of Central Scotland (28.34) ecs (29.02)