All The Way

This weekend past marked another milestone for the M74 extension. The supports for the westbound carriageway of the viaduct now span all the way across from Pollokshaws Road to the other side of the main rail lines. This image is looking SW from Pollokshaws Road.
It's odd how the supports at the east end (over 'shaws Road) are narrowed.

I can only assume this is something to do with gradient limitations: as the motorway goes under Cathcart Road to the East of here, it has to climb to get over these roads. Presumably to have climbed high enough to not require this "notch" would have required too steep a climb (I think UK motorways can be no steeper than 1:20, and even then that's only allowed in rural areas). This I guess is also why a tunnel would have been impossible: any tunnel would have had to go under the Subway line at West Street, then climbed to join the elevated M8/M77 interchange before Shields Road.

Anyway, not that much viaduct to go really. The eastbound carriageway here, then joining up the bits in Tradeston.