The A2 Shore Road forms the route from the end of the M5 all the way to Carrickfergus, taking it through the commuter suburbs of Whiteabbey, Jordanstown and the village of Greenisland. A short section at the Whiteabbey end and a section near Carrickfergus are dual-carriageway, while most of the rest is 4-lane single-carriageway. The exception is the short section through Greenisland village which is 2-lane single carriageway. This is a serious bottleneck and causes huge delays and much stress every day for the 30,000 vehicles daily which travel along the route.

The new road will follow the route shown in the below map (the other two options were rejected). For those who are interested, the Roads Service have more detailed maps here.

Map of proposals (southern end) released to the public in March 2007.

Map of proposals (northern end) released to the public in March 2007.

The road will be built to dual-carriageway standard with two lanes each way. There will be four roundabouts, the first three of which will be signalised:

• The Shore Road entrance to the University of Ulster (currently a T-junction).
• At "Shorelands" (currently a T-junction).
• At Station Road, Greenisland (currently traffic lights).
• At Seapark (near the police station entrance).

At all other junctions, drivers will be required to turn left only and use the next roundabout along to turn round if they wished to turn right. An exception will be made at Station Road to allow buses only to turn right into the former Shore Road from the new road.

For completeness, the three options considered before the decision was made were:

• Inland Option: routing a new 4-lane road inland, to the west of the existing road. This would involve the demolition of 30 homes and impact on 5 gardens. It would utilise fields and some largely undeveloped land attached to 2 schools and 2 churches.
• Online Option: widening the existing road to 4 lanes. This would involve the demolition of 27 homes and impact on 41 gardens.
• Combined Option: widen the Belfast end of the existing road, and build a new road inland for the part of the route from Station Road to Seapark. This would involve the demolition of 23 homes and impact on 25 gardens.

With thanks to Shane McKee for a correction to the above information.

Progress

28 Apr 2008: According to the strategy document "Investment Delivery Plan for Roads" of April 2008, the start date for this scheme has been pushed back from 2008/09 to 2010/11 with completion due 2012/13. This delay is probably due to cash shortages caused by the promotion of schemes on the A5 and A6 corridors, but will be disappointing new for Carrickfergus commuters.

17 Nov 2007: In this press release from October 2007, the cost was given as £55.2m. This is another substantial rise in costs. The scheme was included in the Draft Belfast Metropolitan Area Plan in 2004 at an estimated cost of £21m. By March 2006 the cost had been revised and had doubled to £41m. The further rise of about 30% over the past year and a half probably reflects refinements in the design and rises in property values. In the design currently proposed, Greenisland's medieval tower hosue, known as Cloch-na-Larty will survive the scheme but will lose some of the open land in front of it.

Design of the New Road

The exact design of the road will depend on the location. The "offline" section would see the road built to rural dual-carriageway standard with a total width of 27 metres. The "online" section would reduce this to 22 metres to ease the impact on properties. Local traffic will only be permitted to turn left on and off the road except for a few key junctions. People who wish to turn right from driveways will turn left and then turn round at the next junction. The junctions will all be traffic-light-controlled roundabouts which perform better than the more basic priority roundabouts when the main flow of traffic is "straight on". The road will have a 40mph speed limit. Other options such as building the offline option in a cutting to reduce noise were rejected as they would require even more land. Possibilities of building the road through the grounds of the University of Ulster and through the sea on a causeway were also rejected.

A person who lives on the route told me that the Roads Service had in years gone by explored the idea of building the road on the sea side by reclaiming the beach, but that this idea was abandoned after uproar from the residents. This was tried in Whiteabbey, where the A2 was moved onto the beach, and it has had a very negative effect on the shoreline area. Widening the A2 through Greenisland is also destructive, and so most of the residents seem to prefer the inland option which would re-route the road about 200 metres inland and leave the Shore Road intact. The Public Inquiry is likely to be a lively affair.

Photos

Part of the daily evening traffic jam on the 2 lane section of the A2 approaching Greenisland. [Photo by Wesley Johnston]

At the centre of the village, the number of mature trees and large houses close to the road is apparent. This picture was taken in winter when the trees were bare, but the road looks well in summer. [Photo by Wesley Johnston]

The A2 running through the centre of Greenisland village. [Photo by Wesley Johnston]

Another view of the A2, looking back to Belfast showing the houses at the shore. More recent housing developments, such as the one off frame to the right, were built with the widening in mind, as you can see from the wide grass verge. [Photo by Wesley Johnston]