21 June 2007
Part of the new M1 A1 High grade dual carriageway being constructed by Northroute has been opened to traffic.
This project is part of a number of schemes that will see the completion of a dual-carriageway on the entire A1 Lisburn to Dublin route. This project will complete the link from Cloghogue across the border to the Irish M1 motorway at Dundalk and is being part-funded by the UK and partly by the Irish government. This marks a major step forward in North-South relations as it is the first jointly-funded road project since Irish independence in 1921.
The road here carries around 20,000 vehicles per day of which 20% are HGVs. This section is one of the worst: a twisty accident-prone two-lane single-carriageway road running through a steep valley with dozens of private accesses onto it. The whole scheme will also see 5.7km of link roads and 11 bridges built.
The road is "high quality dual-carriageway" meaning that it will be built to motorway standard with no central reservation crossing points, full hard shoulders and one fully grade-separated junction north of the border, with further grade-separated junctions on the Irish side.
Mattest were awarded the testing contract for the project having completed the testing for the Dundalk Western By-Pass prior to this contract.
The entire road is scheduled to be completed in August of this year.
