When it was decided 1965 to build a new city, Craigavon, by connecting Portadown and Lurgan it was planned that the two towns would be joined by two new motorways - a Northway, to the north, and a Southway, to the south. Initially the Northway was to be built, and work began by constructing the westbound carriageway only, whcih would carry all traffic until such times as the growth of the city meant that provision of a separate northbound carriageway was required. By the early 1970s the westbound carriageway of Northway had been built from the Armagh Road west of Portadown, through the town and half way to Lurgan, but as the city plan stalled work ground to a halt and nothing more was ever built of Northway, leaving ghost bridges over nothing and weird, half-finished motorway junctions such as the M12 interchange here and the planned city centre interchange here. The map below shows the section of Northway that exists today (in red and blue), which is nevertheless a vital road, connecting the M1 motorway via the M12 to Portadown and hence on to Armagh.

View A3 Northway as of Feb 2014 in a larger map

From Portadown to the M12 junction (known as "Kernan Loop") Northway is currently two lanes westbound (towards Armagh) but only one lane eastbound (towards Craigavon centre) which leads to bottlenecks and congestion, especially in the morning peak (in 2014 the road was carrying 27,000 vehicles per day). This arrangement was not original, but has been achieved 'on the cheap' at some point in the past couple of decades by repainting slightly narrower lanes in order to increase their number from 2 to 3. However this process can't be repeated to create four lanes as the resulting lanes would be much too narrow.

So this scheme will see the 1.9km stretch from the Seagoe Road signalised junction to Kernan Loop widened to give two lanes each way. This stretch is highlighted in RED on the map above. A short adjacent stretch from Seagoe to the Shillington river bridge was widened to 2+2 lanes round 2011/12. This is not the totality of the remaining 2+1 stretches, but it is an important chunk of it and the location of the scheme will help traffic at Kernan Loop since where the majority of traffic leaves Northway to get to the M1. With thanks to Andrew Gallagher for corrections to this.

Updates

31 Oct 2014: The scheme was "substantially completed" last week according to a press release by DRD on 24 October. This is about a month ahead of the expected completion date of mid November, so represents excellent progress by all involved. The main outstanding task is the new street lighting which will take place over the next couple of weeks, and the 30mph speed limit will remain until that is done. The DRD Minister said "I congratulate all those involved and would particularly thank the public for their patience during the works. This is a significant investment in roads infrastructure which will bring benefit to the many motorists using this vital link between Armagh, Craigavon and Belfast."

25 Aug 2014: A site visitor (who prefers to remain anonymous, but thank you) kindly sent the below pictures which were taken last week and show work underway. As you can see from the first picture, all traffic is now using a contra-flow on what was the southbound side of the road, leaving the northbound lane for use by the contractor. Picture 2 shows how work is already underway to excavate the verge of the road ready to extend the road base onto it to provide the fourth traffic lane. More legislation has appeared in connection with the scheme - this one  bans overtaking on both this stretch and the stretches to either side from 25 August to 16 November, which is pretty much the time period anticipated for this project. This one imposes a 30mph speed limit on the stretch of Northway from Mill Avenue Portadown to Asda Link Road Portadown. I can't quite see the reasoning for this latter one, as it does not cover the stretch of road being upgraded, but its purpose may merely be to extend the limits of this one, which was passed a few weeks ago and covers the stretch in question.

Pic 1: View north-east along Northway circa 20 August 2014, with all traffic using a contra-flow on the right while the contractor has use of the lane on the left. Work is already underway on the far verge. [Anonymous site visitor]

Pic 2: A few hundred metres further on from the previous picture, and contractor's machinery has clearly been at work excavating the bank here to allow construction of the widened road base. Circa 20 August 2014. [Anonymous site visitor]

16 Aug 2014: The DRD Minister confirmed four days ago that this scheme has now begun. In the previous update I noted that the temporary speed limit was technically in force from 28 July, but since I haven't been in Portadown in the intervening period I can't say exactly when work actually began between then and 12 August. However, the press release confirms that work is due to be finished "before the end of the year". The legislation providing for the temporary 30mph speed limit expires on 17 November 2014. The photo below is the official one released by the DRD showing representatives of both the contractor and the DRD. It was taken on the Seagoe Road flyover looking north-east along part of the Northway that will be widened from 3 to 4 lanes.

Left to right: Philip Greaves Contract Manager (Gibson Brothers Limited); David McCaw Transport NI Project Manager; Danny Kennedy Transport Minister; and John Gibson Director Gibson Brothers Limited. 12 August 2014. [DRD]

25 Jul 2014: Roads Service (or TransportNI as they are now called) have released a document imposing a temporary 30mph speed limit on 3.5km of the north-eastbound A3 Northway from Asda Link Road to Highfield Heights from 28 July 2014 for 16 weeks, ie until roughly late November. This in itself is unusual as it's not common to apply a temporary speed limit in only one direction of a single-carriageway road. (I was wrong - speed limit applies in both directions.) However it is very likely to be to facilitate this widening scheme, and the extent of the closure suggests that the majority of widening works will take place on the north-western side of the road. This coincides nicely with the appointment of the contractor Gibson (Banbridge) Ltd on 10 July. The 16 week timescale is slightly longer than the 14 weeks estimated in the tender document, but in practice this may just be to provide resilience in the event of unforeseen delays. This would mean completion in late November 2014.

10 Feb 2014: In a press release last week, the Minister announced that this scheme, hitherto not publicised, would be going ahead. It was apparently so secret that it wasn't even mentioned in the most recent report to Craigavon Borough Council last autumn! He said that work has now begun (on 28 January) on an advance contract to relocate street lighting, drainage and crash barriers, along with removal of vegetation and should last about 8 weeks, ie until late March. There will then be a pause while the main contract will begin "during the summer" and take about 14 weeks to complete, so presumably in the autumn of 2014.