Inner Ring Road plans

The history of the route goes back to the Glasgow Inner Ring Road (IRR) project of the 1960s. Owing largely to public opposition, only the northern and western flanks of this were ever built (this is now the central section of the M8). With the resultant chronic traffic congestion on the M8, only in 2011 was the southern flank, the M74 Completion, finally opened after much local opposition.^[6] The construction of the EERR link is intended to provide an 'inner circle' connecting the new section of M74 at Polmadie Road with the M8 at Provan.

The route of the EERR was planned as early as 1965 by the then Glasgow Corporation after the Glasgow Inner Ring Road proposals originating from the Bruce Report, and was originally a continuation of the Stirling Motorway (which would be realised as the M80) which would have run directly south beyond the interchange with the Monkland Motorway (the present-day M8) at Provan Gas Works. This road would have driven south towards the extended South Link Motorway (now the M74) and would have served as an "outer ring" for the city. As the appetite for further inner urban motorway developments waned in the 1970s following the backlash when the city centre section of the IRR was built in the late 1960s, the route evolved into an urban thoroughfare instead.

1990s - 2012: Parkhead Bypass and Clyde Gateway Phase 1 & 2

The M80, when eventually built in the early 1990s, now terminated at the Provan Gas Works interchange, whilst the Parkhead bypass, constructed in 1988 as part of the Parkhead Forge shopping development, was effectively the first section of the EERR. From Parkhead, the road would cut northward, through Hogarth Park, a former railway embankment now used as public open space. The new road would run between Haghill and Carntyne, under Edinburgh Road and Cumbernauld Road continuing along the old Caledonian Railway "Switchback" line to the M8/M80 junction at Provan.

A planning application was submitted for the southern section of the EERR, named the Clyde Gateway, in October 2005, but the winning of Host City for the 2014 Commonwealth Games provided the necessary impetus. Phase 1, from junction 1A of the now-completed M74 extension Polmadie Road to Shawfield opened in April 2007 as part of the Oatlands development. Phase 2^[7] was completed in April 2012 and designated as the A728.^[8] It passes Shawfield Stadium, over the River Clyde at Rutherglen Bridge and past Dalmarnock railway station (where it meets the A749), before linking up with the Parkhead bypass (A74) and the new stadia district (Celtic Park and the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome), joining the existing road network at the Forge Retail Park.^[7]

2016 - present: Clyde Gateway Phase 3

Construction of phase 3, linking north from the A89 Parkhead Bypass to the M8 at Provan along a disused railway line, was planned to commence after the 2014 Commonwealth Games.^[7] In January 2016, Glasgow City Council approved the construction of this 0.9 miles (1.4 km) phase with works then expected to start in 2018^[9] and to be complete in 2021, at an estimated cost of £60 million.^[10][11] As of 2020, the plan was reported to have been quietly forgotten in 2019 as funding was unlikely to be made available.^[12] It was confirmed subsequently that the project was still under consideration, with a motion to cancel it officially on environmental grounds being rejected by the council in June 2021.^[13] In October 2021, the route was formally cancelled.^[14]

Public transport

The '75' bus service, one of the primary routes by the major operator in the region, First Glasgow, runs along the entire length of the 'old' A728 in both directions from the point of passing Caledonia Road Church (coincidentally also the location of the company's headquarters and depot since 2014).^[17]