Minister for Active Travel Patrick Harvie has been questioned on why the Scottish Government is spending millions of pounds to repair part of the M8 in the weeks before Cop26, the Daily Record has revealed.
The city is set to host the climate conference in November and Harvie has been called on to ensure alternatives to simply repairing the existing motorway structure are considered in the long-term.
Work is already underway to ensure that the crumbling viaduct that runs through Woodside before Charing Cross does not deteriorate further.
Labour MSP Paul Sweeney has written to the Scottish Greens co-leader to brand the motorway work as a "colossal waste of money" in the year a major conference on climate change is taking place in the city.
Sweeney outlined how he believes that Glasgow should be looking to the example of cities in the US and Europe which have already replaced freeways with roads which blend in better with their surroundings.
The construction of the M8 through Glasgow's city centre was hugely controversial and car dependency - and the need to encourage more people to use alternative forms of transport - is expected to be a major talking point at the COP26 climate conference at the SEC.
In a letter seen by the Record, Sweeney wrote: "It is my opinion the project to restore the crumbling Woodside viaducts - an ugly concrete megastructure completed in 1971 after the mass demolition and displacement of the surrounding communities - is ill thought through and, in the year of COP26, constitutes a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money.
"As an environmentalist, I would like to think you will agree that the government need to think again on this issue before committing to a very expensive permanent repair programme."
Sweeney added: "It's clear the cost of repairing the obsolete blight of the Woodside viaduct will be exorbitant.
"The current estimate for propping the structures to enable the substantial repair works to begin is in the region of £35 million alone.
"Given that the works are scheduled to be conducted over a period of four years, I can only imagine what the final bill for the permanent repairs will amount to.
"It is obscene that the largest spend on transport infrastructure in Glasgow in recent years should be on repairing a 1960s-designed elevated motorway in the heart of the city, when other cities worldwide have already advanced projects to remove or replace similar oppressive structures with multi-modal urban boulevards."
A Transport Scotland spokeswoman said: “The works on the M8 Woodside viaduct are essential to maintain the strategic connectivity of this vital part of the trunk road network.
"Maintenance of this section of the road was always scheduled at this time, but the required works will be more extensive than originally planned.
“A number of potential remedies were considered but the propping solution was assessed as the best option in terms of timescale and value for the public purse. The development of the permanent repair programme is ongoing whilst investigation and design work takes place to make the overall delivery programme as efficient and short as possible.
“Work on the active travel corridor on New City Road will be taken forward once the repair work has been completed, and this has been fully discussed and agreed with Glasgow City Council.”
