M1 motorway (Northern Ireland)
Template: Infobox trunk road / Maintenance / GB -M
Countries:
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland
The M1 motorway (English for, M1 ') is a highway in Northern Ireland, which connects Belfast Dungannon in County Armagh. The M1 is the longest motorway in Northern Ireland and the only one in the full planned length also built. In the Belfast area, the M1 is six lanes and exit at junction 3, then expanded four lanes in the further course. In Lisburn branches at junction 7, the European Route 1 from Dublin.
History
The first development plan of the M1 in 1956 initially saw a route from Belfast to Lurgan. The first preliminary work began the following year; 1959 started the actual construction of the M1 in the Greater Belfast. In July 1962, the first 10.9 km long section between junctions 1 and 6 was opened, one and a half years later, the extension to junction 7 At the time, initially the plan to connect the M1 to the planned city highway Craigavon and to use it as a western end of M1 (see also: History of the M12). With the expansion plans of 1964 this idea was rejected, and the route of the M1 at Craigavon few kilometers further north planned so that the motorway could be extended further west to Dungannon. In Belfast, the M1 should also connect to a planned inner-city ring road after the new plans.
The expansion of M1, meanwhile, was driven was speeding. In December 1964, set in the west, a 7.2 km long section between junctions 12 and 13 finished. Almost exactly a year later, the M1 from junction 7 was extended to junction 9, just three months later, the section was handed over to junction 10 traffic. The end of 1967 was both the western and the eastern portion extended further to the west. The western portion now extended to junction 15 at Dungannon and had thus reached the target point of the M1. The eastern section was extended to junction 11 while the M12 has been implemented as parallel connector on the planned city highway Craigavon . In April 1969, finally closing the gap between the western and the eastern section has been completed, so that the M1 was now all the way from Belfast to Dungannon passable.
Expansion plans
The only plan that has not yet been implemented, is the connection to the inner-city ring road of Belfast, as this was never realized. Closing the gap between M1 and M2/M3 assumed initially developed as a four-lane expressway A12 (also called Westlink ), which was expanded to six lanes in 2009. In addition, the connections to the A12 were optimized transport links to the Motorways. Eventually, the A12 is upgraded in the future once the M1 motorway. In Greater Belfast also the expansion of M1 from four to six lanes is expected to be up to junction 7 continued.
A further extension of the M1 to the west was not initially planned, because the development of other regions by highway enjoyed priority. As a further development of the motorway network has been stopped due to the mid-70s by the Northern Ireland conflict, further planning came to a standstill. Currently, the west subsequent A4 between 2008 and 2011 will be expanded to a four-lane highway to the junction with the A5 on. Therefore, a further construction of the route as a highway is considered long-term as unlikely.