| A1 Dualling - Beech Hill to Cloghogue | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The A1 road is a vital route connecting Belfast and Dublin as well as other cities such as Lisburn and Newry. The A1 is already dual-carriageway as far as Loughbrickland (details) and a scheme was nearing completion at time of writing (June 2006) to dual the portion from Loughbrickland to Beech Hill (details). The road is then single-carriageway from Beech Hill, round the existing Newry Bypass to the border. On the south side of Newry work is underway on a dual-carriageway to link from here to the Irish M1 and hence on to Dublin. This scheme will see the route around Newry dualled to "high quality dual-carriageway" (HQDC) standard which means full grade separation, with a total of five junctions. A HQDC is one designed to motorway standard, but classed as an A-class road. North of Bessbrook it will follow a new cross-country route, while the section to the west and southwest of Newry will roughly follow the line of the existing bypass. See links above for a map of the route, but see also the strip map below. This map shows that the road is planned to have five grade-separated junctions, spaced approximately 2km apart. These will be at:
Strip Junction Map
22 Feb 2010: Starting at the north end of the scheme, Sheepbridge junction is now virtually finished, but only partly opened. North of Sheepbridge, ie between there and Beech Hill, work is less advanced with one carriageway still under construction. The road from Sheepbridge to Carnbane is completed, with even the white lines now in place, and is awaiting the rest of the scheme to catch up. Between Carnbane and Camlough Road, construction work is still underway but well advanced. According to site visitor Nowax, traffic was moved onto this stretch today. On the hill section south of Camlough Road, and as far as Cloghogue, only one carriageway is completed, and all A1 traffic is using this carriageway. Finally, the Cloghogue junction has been completed and partially open since Christmas, and is a very impressive scheme. In summary, some stretches are now complete, with the stretches in between less advanced. Completion by the summer certainly seems plausible. I have included some great photos from two contributors below. Some of the pictures were taken by Nowax about a week ago, while the remaining pictures were provided by the Newsletter, and were also taken about a week ago. My grateful thanks to both of them.
View north from Sheepbridge to Beech Hill, showing the work on the southbound carriageway still underway on 13 Feb 2010. [Nowax]
Looking north towards the completed but not fully opened Sheepbridge interchange. The new A1 on the left is not yet open to traffic. 11 Feb 2010. [Nowax]
View south along the completed but unopened section
The A1 soaring on its viaduct near Tandragee Road (north of Carnbane). 15 Feb 2010. [Photo by Pat McSorley, courtesy the Newsletter]
Partially completed Carnbane junction, seen looking north on 13 Feb 2010. [Nowax]
Camlough Road junction well advanced on 13 Feb 2010. [Nowax]
The new A1 as it crosses the railway half-way up the hill section, with still a lot of work to be done. This section is an online upgrade of the existing A1. 13 Feb 2010. [Nowax]
The looped northbound sliproads at Cloghogue junction, open since Christmas, have been literally blasted out of solid rock, seen here on 15 Feb 2010. [Photo by Pat McSorley, courtesy the Newsletter]
Contractors laying the road surface on part of the A1 on 15 Feb 2010. 4 Dec 2009: Vehicles are now using the new road at three separate locations: A 1km stretch from the existing A1 to the Sheepbridge junction is now open to traffic (with one lane each way). Drivers here have been reporting just how massive the Sheepbridge interchange feels. To the west of Newry, all traffic is currently using one side of the new road for 1.5km (again, one lane each way). On Thursday, 3rd December traffic was allowed onto a 1km stretch over the top of the Cloghogue flyover (also one lane each way). This is an effort to ease traffic, because last year thousands of Southern shoppers flocking to Newry for cheap purchases virtually blocked the A1 here. Roads Service have warned drivers that this is not permanent, and the flyover may have to close again in the New Year. The Belfast Telegraph notes that almost 1/3 of the length of the new road is now in use. The pictures below are samples taken from a much larger set of images posted by GrubyNH four days ago on Skyscraper City which I strongly encourage you to look at. They show just how impressive the new road is, and how advanced it is in places. The only thing that takes the shine off the success is the howler of a spelling mistake on one of the direction signs - rather embarrassing! Although the scheme was expected to be completed by "late 2010", it now looks as if the scheme will be completed much earlier than this, perhaps in the Summer. Three weeks ago the Minister said "[The scheme] is several months ahead of programme with the construction contractor indicating that they expect to maintain this momentum. Fifteen of the seventeen major structures on the scheme have been completed and work on the remaining two is well advanced." A marvellous piece of work.
The completed A1 looking north from Sheepbridge interchange on 26 Nov 2009,
View south from the same location as above, illustrating the sheer scale of the Sheepbridge interchange. Traffic currently leaves the road here. [GrubyNH]
Carnbane interchange on the unopened A1, 26 Nov 2009. [GrubyNH]
Erroneous new sign on the A1 at Carnbane, with glaring typo in "Downpatrick". [GrubyNH]
The uncompleted A1 with the bridge over the Newry River ahead, 26 Nov 2009. [GrubyNH]
Work underway on the A1, and on the bridge that will carry the A1
Looking south along the A1 with Camlough Road interchange in the foreground, and the existing Newry Bypass curving off to the left. 26 Nov 2009. [GrubyNH] 2 Nov 2009: The scheme is now about 2/3 complete, and the scheme is starting to look close to what it will eventually be like in several locations. There is a fear that this Christmas will see a repeat of last year's chaos, when an influx of shoppers from the Republic of Ireland led to tailbacks at the roadworks that effectively blocked the A1. Local papers have reported that there is a plan to open the Cloghogue flyover temporarily over Christmas to help with this problem, although I have not heard this confirmed by Roads Service. The three photos below were taken about a week ago.
Pic 1: Drainage being installed along part of the new
Pic 2: The bridge that will carry the new A1 over Tandragee Road. 23 Oct 2009. [Aubrey Dale]
Pic 3: The twin carraigeways of the future A1 very evident looking south 12 Oct 2009: On 30 September traffic moved onto part of the new road for the first time. According to site visitor Gordon Nabney, the Sheepbridge junction to the north of Newry is now complete. This is the point at which the new road diverges from the line of the existing A1, and traffic is now using part of the new carriageway from there north as far as Beech Hill. At the other side of the city, traffic is now using the future northbound carriageway between Cloghogue and Camlough Road, although the Cloghogue flyover is not yet in use. Along this stretch work is now underway to complete the southbound carriageway. Completion, by the original timetable, is now just over a year away, but right now progress seems to be at least on schedule, if not ahead. 1 Oct 2009: The new Newry railway station reportedly opened at the start of September. There have been some hints in DRD meeting minutes (for example this one two weeks ago) that there might be an intention to open the southern part of the scheme early. The relevant sentence is "...discussed the advantages of coordinating the opening of the Newry Bus and Rail station and the Cloghogue scheme." It's not clear from the document, but if the "Cloghogue scheme" refers to the upgrade of the A1 then it's possible that this part of the scheme may be opened along with the official opening of the new Newry rail station. FOR UPDATES BEFORE OCTOBER 2009 PLEASE VISIT THE ARCHIVE. Background This element of the A1 is being privately funded as part of the "DBFO2" (a PPP scheme) which also includes the provision of four grade-separated junctions on the A1, the dualling of the A4 from Ballygawley to Dungannon, and realignments of the A4 at Annaghilla and the A5 at Tullyvar. Many had thought that the existing Newry Bypass would be dualled since it was itself only completed in 1996. However Roads Service have instead settled on a new route for the northern half of the Bypass which will effectively convert the northern part of the existing Newry Bypass into a local distributor road. The scheme has attracted considerable local controversy, not least because the fully grade-separated junctions will limit local traffic movements and there is a fear that this will lead to long detours. On the other hand, there are those who see a grade-separated dual-carriageway as too much of a compromise, and want to see a full motorway to match the standard of the route south of the border. This public consultation in July 2006 gave the cost of the scheme as £109m. However, this press release in February 2008 stated that the cost had risen by an amazing 39% to £152m. This can at least be partly explained by this statement to the Assembly in January 2008, when the Finance Minister stated that he was granting "£22.7million to the Department for Regional Development to meet the increased land costs associated with the A1 Beechhill to Cloghogue scheme and to allow the completion of the Newry / Dundalk scheme." The Regional Strategic Transport Plan estimated the cost of the project at £99.2m, more than the £87m being quoted by the Roads Service in 2005. The scheme is now costing almost double what was estimated just three years before work began. Photo
Preliminary site works underway for the new road near Cloghanramer Road, to the north west of Newry in early November 2007. [Photo by Aubrey Dale]
This computer-generated impression of the new route shows the Carnbane interchange looking south, here shown as a dumbbell junction (ie with just one bridge and two roundabouts). It was published in the Roads Service's "On The Move" magazine, issue 6 (Summer 2006). |
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