Talk:A1 road (Northern Ireland)

Discussion
Is it true that the M1 motorway was supposed to continue south to Dublin rather than west to Dungannon, and that the decision to complete the motorway as it is now was political? Certainly it is rather hard to believe that there isn't some reason why one has to use such a sub-standard road from the Sprucefield roundabout to Newry.

It's rather interesting too that the new cross-border road will only be motorway south of the border (M1) becoming merely "dual-carriageway" in the North.

Oh well, at least the vast majority of the Dublin-Belfast route will be motorway soon.

Anyways - if there's any actual background info on why the M1 (NI) follows the route it does rather than down to Newry - it should be added to the article.

zoney ♣ talk 16:31, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

No, it's not really true
I have researched NI's motorways in depth, and have found no evidence that the M1 was ever destined to go south towards Dublin. Originally the plan was for a high quality road from Belfast to Lisburn, but this got extended to Portadown when it was decided to build a new city (Craigavon) there. The extension to Dungannon was merely a coincidence of timing - the road from Portadown to Dungannon was one of the poorest in NI with a 20mph speed limit. It was due to be upgraded to dual-carriageway in the 1960s and they took the opportunity to build it to motorway standard. It's important to remember that at the time it was conceived, the M1 was meant to relieve congestion for commuters travelling into the city, not connect it to other cities.

Having said that, there in fact WAS a plan to build a motorway from Lisburn to Newry, but it was not the M1. It was the M11 and you can actually see it on some of the original blueprints of Craigavon New City. It would have run a mile or two west of the modern A1. It was dropped along with other sections of motorway such as the M4 Ormeau Road to Carryduff, M5 to Carrickfergus, M6 to Larne and M8 in south Belfast in the 1969 review of transport. This may well have been political, but there's no proof of that. After all, there was the intention of building a motorway from Belfast to Derry since 1964 - until the entire motorway programme was shut down in 1972.

You can read more here: http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/roads/historymotorwayplans.html

Wesley Johnston

Cleanup
This article, IMHO, needs a serious cleanup. It is not factual and contains a lot of opinions. What are other's thoughts? Regan123 01:49, 8 October 2006 (UTC)