The M1 is a motorway in Northern Ireland. It is the longest motorway in Northern Ireland and runs for from

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Dungannon Dungannon () is a town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the second-largest town in the county (after Omagh) and had a population of 14,340 at the 2011 Census. The Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council had its headquarters in the ...

through

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

, County Down,

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and ha ...

and

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...

. It forms part of the route via the A1 in Northern Ireland ( N1/M1 in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

) between Belfast and

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

as well as being a part of the unsigned European E01 and E18 routes.

Route

The M1-M12 near Portadown (2) - geograph

The road begins at the Broadway

roundabout A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...

to the west of

Windsor Park Windsor Park is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Linfield F.C. who own the land the stadium is built on, while the Irish Football Association own and operate the stadium and pay Linfield an annual rent ...

and running parallel to the Blackstaff River. Heading south as a dual three–lane motorway, it passes to the east of

Casement Park Casement Park ( ga, Páirc Mhic Asmaint) is the principal Gaelic games stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and serves as the home ground of the Antrim football and hurling teams. It is located in Andersonstown Road in the west of the city, a ...

. Running through

Dunmurry Dunmurry (; ) is an urban townland in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Dunmurry is in the Collin electoral ward for the local government district of Belfast City Council. History Until the end of the 18th century, Dunmurry was largely an agricultura ...

and Ballyskeagh it arrives to the south of

Lisburn Lisburn (; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with ...

. Traffic for

leaves at junctions 7 and 8 as the motorway enters the

countryside In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, ...

. Now heading west past Aghnatrisk it runs parallel to and then crosses the Belfast-Dublin Railway Line followed by the

River Lagan The River Lagan (; Ulster Scots: ''Lagan Wattèr'') is a major river in Northern Ireland which runs 53.5 miles (86 km) from the Slieve Croob mountain in County Down to Belfast where it enters Belfast Lough, an inlet of the Irish Sea. The ...

before reaching Moira. Continuing west, it passes between Killaghy and Tullydagan and to the north of

Lurgan Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh. Lurgan is about south-west of Belfast and is linked to the city by both the M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin railway line. It had a population ...

and Turmoyra, across the Pound River, south of

Lough Neagh Lough Neagh ( ) is a freshwater lake in Northern Ireland and is the largest lake in the island of Ireland, the United Kingdom and the British Isles. It has a surface area of and supplies 40% of Northern Ireland's water. Its main inflows come ...

, before its junction with the M12 at

Craigavon Craigavon may refer to: * Craigavon, County Armagh, a planned town in Northern Ireland ** Craigavon Borough Council, 1972–2015 local government area centred on the planned town * Viscount Craigavon, title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom ** ...

. Crossing the

River Bann The River Bann (from ga, An Bhanna, meaning "the goddess"; Ulster-Scots: ''Bann Wattèr'') is one of the longest rivers in Northern Ireland, its length, Upper and Lower Bann combined, being 129 km (80 mi). However, the total lengt ...

it then enters a relatively unpopulated area. It passes south of

Derryadd Lough Derryadd ()Placenames NI
is a hamlet and

and runs in a loop around the Annagarriff Nature Reserve before crossing the River Blackwater, skirting to the north of Tamnamore and Laghey Corner before ending at

on the A4.

History

The line of the M1 in Belfast had been planned for a road since 1946 as the ''Southern Approach Road'', though there were some disagreements on the route.The Motorway Archive – M1 (Northern Ireland)
County planners in Armagh had also been working on plans to rebuild the then T3 trunk road which suffered from poor alignments, limited speed limits and was of failing construction, some work on which had been undertaken between 1955 and 1957. These two plans were eventually upgraded into plans for the M1 by 1958. Construction began 1957 on the first bridge and subsequently the first section of the motorway. In 1964, the Northern Ireland Government announced plans for an extensive route of motorways which saw the M1 now planned to go to Dungannon. The M1 is the only motorway in Northern Ireland completed to its full planned length The road was constructed in stages between 1962 and 1968: Prior to the opening the RUC traffic division ran a publicity campaign to educate drivers on how to drive on a motorway. At the end of 1965 UK Transport Minister

Tom Fraser Thomas Fraser (18 February 1911 – 21 November 1988) was Scottish coal miner and trade unionist, who was a Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for the Hamilton constituency between 1943 and 1967. Life He was the son of Thomas and Mary Fra ...

and his successor

Barbara Castle Barbara Anne Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn, (''née'' Betts; 6 October 1910 – 3 May 2002), was a British Labour Party politician who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1979, making her one of the longest-serving female MPs in Bri ...

imposed a blanket 70 mph (113 km/h) speed limit on motorways in Great Britain, but the recently constructed Northern Ireland M1 remained free of a blanket speed limit for several years. *Junctions 1 to 6 opened on 10 July 1962 :The motorway follows the route of the former

Lagan Canal The Lagan Canal was a canal built to connect Belfast to Lough Neagh. The first section, which is a river navigation, was opened in 1763, and linked Belfast to Lisburn. The second section from Lisburn to Lough Neagh includes a small amount o ...

between junctions 2 and 6. The first user of the road was a motorcyclist, Robert McFall of Belfast. The section between Junctions 1 and 3 was subsequently widened to three lanes in each direction. *Junctions 6 to 7 opened on 15 December 1963 *Junctions 7 to 9 opened on 6 December 1965 *Junctions 9 to 10 opened on 28 February 1966 *Junctions 10 to 11 opened on 27 November 1967 *Junctions 11 to 12 opened on 29 January 1968 *Junctions 12 to 13 opened on 1 December 1964 *Junctions 13 to 15 opened on 23 December 1967 :Junctions 12 to 15 were constructed across a

peat bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...

which is up to 12 metres deep, which required the removal of 3.4 million cubic metres of peat. Several junctions were omitted from the original construction, as these were for future planned motorways, some of these have now been used for other road plans: *Junction 3 was opened in 1988. *Junction 8 was opened in 2003. This provides access to the A1 in both directions, whilst junction 7 had its slip roads facing west closed. Junction 8 had originally been planned for a different location for the M11 motorway to relieve the A1 towards the border with the

. The M1 is straight and flat on the stretch between Junctions 9 and 10 and on the stretch between Junctions 12 and 13, and an

urban myth An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

exists claiming that these were to be used as supplementary runways by the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

in the event of a major conflict with the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. By the mid 2000s the M1 in

had high traffic flows at peak times and suffered from congestion. To relieve this work commenced early in 2006 to replace the roundabout at junction 1 with a fully grade separated junction through which the M1 now flows directly onto the A12 Westlink dual-carriageway. As part of the scheme, the M1 was widened from two to three lanes in each direction between Junctions 1 and 2 along with part of the Westlink. Work was also carried out on the A4 which begins at the terminus of the M1 between

and Ballygawley (approximately ) was upgraded to

dual carriageway A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...

standard, opening in November 2010. In 2011 the government announced plans for two service areas in each direction between junction 3 and junction 6 near Ballyskeagh. These service stations are the first motorway service stations in Northern Ireland. They include petrol stations and restaurant facilities. Construction on the westbound service area began in November 2013 and was opened on 10 March 2016. Work on the eastbound service area began in April 2016 and was opened on 2 February 2017.

Future improvements

In 2006, the government announced plans for a £45m flyover link directly to and from the A1 and M1 eastbound. Construction was initially estimated to take place between 2010 and 2015. As of June 2016, the scheme has no projected completion date.M1 A1 link scheme
, Completion due 2018. The government also have plans to add west facing slip roads at junction 3. Junction 3 opened in 1988 with only east facing slip roads. Construction on the west facing slip roads is subject to future budget settlements.

Junctions

:''Note: There is no junction 4 or 5, these were to be built for since-cancelled schemes such as the M11 from Newry and the M8 from Belfast''

References

External links