| A2 Shore Road at Greenisland - widening | ||||||||||||||
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 vehicles which travel along the route (26,000 per day north of Greenisland; 35,000 south of Greenisland). 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:
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:
With thanks to Shane McKee for a correction to the above information. Progress 16 June 2009: The Regional Development Minister provided an update on this scheme in the Assembly on 5th June. The Geotechnical Investigation (looking at ground conditions on the proposed route) was carried out from January to June 2009. Archaeological work is due to be carried out during the Autumn of 2009. The timescale has not really changed - subject to the availability of funding (not a certainty these days) it is planned to commence in 2010/11 and be completed "by the end of the 2012/13 financial year", ie by April 2013. 24 Nov 2008: The press release issued 7 weeks ago (see previous update) suggested that work would begin in 2010 or 11. When Roads Service met with Carrickfergus Borough Council on 10 November this was revised to 2011 at the earliest, as reported by The Carrick Times. It quotes a Roads Service spokesperson as saying that "With a fair wind, construction will commence in 2011." and "We are pushing this forward as vigorously as we can; the slow bit has been the statutory procedure, as a result of the objections we received. Schemes compete and are subject to availability of funding, but it is of the highest priority within the eastern division." The vesting order is due to be published during 2009 with the project put out to tender in 2010. This will lead, if there are no problems, to work on the ground commencing in 2011 and lasting about two years. 2 Oct 2008: Roads Service's response to the public inquiry was published on 30th September. It did not say anything earth shattering, and committed to proceeding with the scheme largely as proposed. The documents, available here, outline Roads Service's response to the main concerns of the inspector (of the public inquiry). These include a slight realignment at Langley Hall to avoid vesting land from properties that were only constructed very recently and whose location had received approval from Roads Service at the time. It also modifies access to Belfast High School which will now consist of a one-way system accessed to and from the new road directly, and the relocation of the pedestrian crossing. However, a layby on the citybound carriageway has been rejected on the grounds of safety and cost/benefit analysis. The criticism that the "online" nature of part of the scheme would not allow for future road improvements on the road was rejected by Roads Service on the grounds that no specific improvements were currently proposed. This viewpoint is in contrast to the approach taken in the 1970s, when many roads were constructed with additional capacity for future improvements (eg M2 between j4 and j5). The accompanying press release confirmed that work is scheduled to get underway in 2010/11 and last about two years. 22 Sep 2008: According to the Regional Development Minister, the results of the public inquiry into the scheme are expected to be published in October 2008. 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] |
