Glasgow Chamber of Commerce has urged Transport Scotland to publish the completed technical modelling for the M8 Woodside Viaducts and to fully test all three options ahead of any final decision.

The viaducts, built in 1971 between Craighall and Charing Cross, carry around 150,000 vehicles each day and have been propped since March 2021, with more than £150 million spent on temporary measures. The consultation has outlined three approaches: repair, replace or remove.

The Chamber's Council of Directors says its review of evidence to date has revealed major gaps. Information released by the Scottish Government under Environmental Information Regulations on 30 April showed the consultation's traffic modelling treated the removal option as a straightforward closure, assuming no compensating public transport and no local network upgrades. It also confirmed there is no completed technical report on that modelling.

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The Chamber argues the M8/M74 corridor is fundamental to the regional economy, linking Glasgow's manufacturing base, over 3,000 firms and 55,000 jobs to Glasgow Airport, Greenock Ocean Terminal and the Glasgow–Edinburgh corridor. Scotland moves about 148 million tonnes of freight by road annually, much of it on the M8/M74.

The Council has set out ten questions it says must be answered before adopting a final stance, including the capacity of the M74 to take displaced traffic, the implications for the neighbouring Kingston Bridge, and the long-term strategy for the whole M8 corridor.

Stuart Patrick, CEO, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, said: "This is one of the most consequential infrastructure decisions Glasgow will face in a generation, and it shouldn't be made on incomplete evidence. The modelling behind this consultation didn't even test what removal plus investment in an alternative would look like.

"Before Glasgow cuts one of its main arteries, we need the completed technical work, all three options properly modelled, and the industrial case weighed as heavily as the regeneration case. Get this right and Glasgow gains, but if we get it wrong, it's very hard to undo."

The Chamber has not endorsed any of the three options and says its priority is for Transport Scotland to complete and publish the outstanding analysis before proceeding.