Route
Much of the road is single carriageway - both for a short distance through Greenock and a 21 mile stretch between Inverkip and Ardrossan.
The rest is dual carriageway - between the Eglington and Warrix interchanges there are in fact 3 lanes in each direction, and the road is constructed to motorway standard (with full grade separation at junctions) save for a lack of hard shoulders. The road very rarely appears busy on this stretch - the adjacent New Town of Irvine, North Ayrshire had a population of only 33,090 in the 2001 census.[1].

Recent Improvements
Flooding is common during periods of high winds combined with a high tide on the coastal stretch between Largs and Skelmorlie. For this reason, closure gates are located at both the north end of Largs and the south end of Skelmorlie.
When the road is closed traffic between Largs and Greenock is often diverted along narrow country lanes with little room to pass any oncoming traffic. This has been known to cause widespread delays.