Transport Scotland is continuing its investment in the central motorway with a further £4.4m upgrade to the M8 between Junction 5 (Shotts) and Junction 6 (Newhouse) starting August 14 for two weeks.

By the time the current programme for this route is achieved in 2011 over £21m will have been committed since 2007. This latest phase of works will involve upgrading and resurfacing the eastbound carriageway between Newhouse and Duntilland.

And with almost 57,000 vehicles using this section of the M8 daily, operating company Bear Scotland is aiming to keep drivers informed by launching the first-ever Twitter page for road works in Scotland.

Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson said: "The M8 links two of Scotland's major cities and is vital to the economy. This investment is hard evidence that the Scottish Government is committed to maintaining our trunk road infrastructure while delivering the biggest construction programme seen in Scotland in a generation.

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"Projects such as this are helping to maintain employment and activity in the sector. Construction employment increased in Scotland by 1.4% in the year to March, a much better position than south of the Border."

Eddie Ross, BEAR Scotland Consultancy Manager, said: "With so many vehicles a day using this route it is important that we keep road users aware of the forthcoming upgrade works.

"That is why we are launching our Twitter page for these particular works and we would encourage people to use as well as other sites such Traffic Scotland which gives 24/7 journey planning advice across the whole network."

Log on to the Twitter site and search for M8_Jct5_to_Jct6 http://twitter.com/M8_Jct5_to_Jct6 to become a follower and get regular updates about the works.

Drivers can also visit www.trafficscotland.org in the normal means for real time journey planning advice across Scotland’s trunk roads.

Second and third phases of works are planned for the autumn which will see further upgrades take place on the eastbound carriageway between Duntilland and Blairmains and the westbound carriageway between Duntilland and Junction 6 at Newhouse.

(GK/BMcc)