Westlink Belfast

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The Westlink road in Belfast, Northern Ireland is a dual carriageway throughpass, designated the A12, connecting the M1 to the M2 and M3 motorways which run south, north and east of the city, respectively. Originally planned in 1964 as the Belfast Urban Motorway^[1], the route was to have been fully grade-separated and would have completely encircled the city centre. Due to lack of money and public opposition only the western portion was completed and this was not fully grade-separated.

The Westlink was built in two phases. Phase 1, connecting the M1 at Broadway to Grosvenor Road opened in February 1981^[2]. Both of these junctions were built as at-grade roundabouts, with a traffic-light junction serving Roden Street and Mulhouse Road half way between. Phase 2, extending the scheme from Grosvenor Road to York Street, was completed in March 1983. This section has two grade-separated junctions at Divis Street and Clifton Street and passes under Peter's Hill. The York Street terminus is at-grade and links to the M2 and, since its opening in January 1995, to the M3. The entire road was built to dual two-lane standard. The southbound section from Grosvenor Road to Broadway was widened to three lanes in 2002 while a bus lane was provided on the opposite carriageway at the same time.

A necessary innovation, the Westlink has nonetheless garnered much negative publicity over the years, owing to rush-hour traffic bottlenecks at its major intersections. It is currently undergoing a major renovation^[3] which will see the full grade-separation of the Broadway and Grosvenor Road junctions via underpasses and a third traffic lane added in both directions between Broadway and Divis Street. It will also see left-in/left-out sliproads provided at Mulhouse Road, the closure of access to Roden Street and the provision of a segregated busway from Broadway into the Europa Bus Centre.

Detractors of this scheme point out that it will merely cause additional bottlenecks at the entry/exit point at York Street, which is not scheduled for redevelopment as part of this scheme. However, on 31 July 2006 a £50m scheme to construct the necessary flyovers here, by 2015, was proposed by the government with a final decision due in the Autumn of 2006. The current upgrade scheme began in February 2006 and is due for completion in mid 2009.

[edit] References

1. ^ .Northern Ireland Roads Site - Belfast Urban Motorway URL accessed 17 July 2006
2. ^ .Northern Ireland Roads Site - Westlink URL accessed 17 July 2006
3. ^ .Northern Ireland Roads Site - Westlink Upgrade URL accessed 17 July 2006

	Roads and Motorways in Northern Ireland
Motorways: M1 | M2 | M3 | M5 | M12 | M22 | A8(M)
Main 'A' Roads: A1 | A2 | A4 | A5 | A7 | A24 | A36
Belfast: Donegall Square | Falls Road | Malone Road | Shankill Road | Westlink