The A801 road links the M8 and M9 motorways. It crosses the canal just to the east of Polmont. Like the M8 itself, when built it just cut across the canal, with no headroom for boats or pedestrians to get through. Now, the canal has been diverted about 30 metres southwards, where the road is higher up, and a new bridge has been built to take it under the road.

The A801 culvert before restoration started.

The construction site on 18/5/99, from the west side. A temporary road has been built around the east side of the site, and the road has been dug up at the point where the new bridge will be. The old culvert is just visible on the lower left of the picture. Apologies for the image quality - my camera sometimes takes quite blurry pictures for no apparent reason.

The same place on 10/8/99. The bridge is now beginning to take shape, its abutments visible in the centre of the picture. The field in front of the bridge is being dug up to make way for the new canal cut which will go under the bridge. Traffic on the road is still being diverted around the construction site.

The A801 bridge was completed in Spring 2000. This picture, taken 18/6/2000 from the east side, shows the extent of the canal diversion - the canal previously continued straight under the road, but now bends quite sharply to the south to reach the bridge.

The bridge from closer up, taken 18/6/2000. This bridge carries not only the A801 road, but also the water supply to Grangemouth.

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