Status
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Construction scheme
(half finished) |
Where
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To
complete a new road link between the
northern Larne West Distributor and the
main A8 near Millbrook, in west Larne,
serving new housing developments around
Ballyhampton Road.
|
Total
Length
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1.8 km / 1.1 miles
|
Dates
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Proposed in "Larne
West Study", DOE - 1992
Included in "Larne Area Plan 2010" -
1998
Work began during or after 2001
Included in
Sub-Regional Transportation Plan (SRTP)
- 2007
Central portion of road (about 50% of
the total) completed - by 2008
Little or no work
carried out between 2008 and 2017
Plans to complete link road publicised -
Sep 2017
Work got underway at south end of road -
Spring 2018
|
Cost
|
Unknown - funded by
private developer
|
Photos
|
See below for links
|
See
Also
|
General
area map of Larne
Larne
West Distributor (North) - on this
site
|
Click
here to jump straight down to updates
for this scheme.
"Larne West" is a term that has been in use
since the early 1990s and refers to the plan to
allocate large quantities of land for new
housing to the west of the town. Because it was
recognised that such large-scale development
(111 hectares) would require new road
infrastructure, the DOE published the "Larne
West Study" in 1992. This study delineated two
new distributor roads to traverse the land. The
first, in the north, would connect Killyglen
Road and Linn Road. The second, in the south,
would connect the first distributor to the main
A8 at Millbrook via the Old Belfast Road,
hitherto a minor local road serving a small
number of houses and commercial premises. This
page refers to the second of these. The map
below shows the two roads, with the northern
part in blue and the southern part in
red/orange. The developers of the housing would
be required to fund and build the roads in their
entirety, and once completed to an appropriate
standard they would be "adopted" by DFI who
would be responsible for maintaining them.
The Larne West Study required the road to built
to a particular standard: 7.3m wide with 2m
footpaths and 3.5m verges on either side. There
were also to be no private accesses directly
onto the road. Instead, houses would front onto
side roads which would themselves link to the
distributor road at regular intervals.
Work on both roads began some time after 2001
(I have been unable to determine exactly when).
The Northern Distributor was finally completed
in December 2013, but work on this road, the
Southern Distributor, proceeded more slowly and
as of the time of writing (October 2017) only
the central portion and a very short stretch at
the north end have been completed. The map above
shows the completed stretches in red and the
unbuilt sections in orange. As of 2011 even the
central portion was divided in two by a concrete
barrier impassible to vehicles, though it was
fully open by 2016. Construction of the road
severed an existing rural road, Ballyhampton
Road, which was realigned to form a pair of
T-junctions onto the new road and no longer
follows its original route. Part of the old
Ballyhampton Road has, however, survived as an
access to some houses, as can be seen in
satellite views.
The economic depression has slowed progress
greatly and no further work has been carried out
since around 2008. The Google Streetviews below
show the temporary termini at the north and
south ends of the central section. It is unclear
when, or if, the road will be completed to its
envisaged length.

Screenshot from Google Streetview showing the
view north at the north end of the completed
central section of the road, from its junction
with Linden Crescent, as it looked in August
2008. [ Google
Streetview]

Screenshot from Google Streetview showing the
view south at the south end of the completed
central section of the road, close to its
junction with Porter Crescent, as it looked in
August 2011. [ Google
Streetview]
Updates
3 Dec 2018:
Work has indeed got underway again on this
scheme after ten years. Work seems to have got
underway in late Spring 2018 to connect the
southerne nd of the Larne West Distributor
(South) to the existing Old Belfast Road and
hence on to the Millbrook roundabout. This will
be significant for the area as it will provide a
new way to get onto the A8 that avoids Antiville
roundabout. Work also seems to have got underway
at the samr time to extend the northern end of
the road, but it does not look as if it will be
completed all the way to the Larne West
Distributor (North) at Lindara but that is the
eventual intention. With thanks to Stephen
Livingston for information on this.
28 Oct 2017:
It looks as if there might finally be some
movements towards completing the Larne West
distributor road which has sat half complete
since the global financial crisis of 2007-08
halted a lot of work, ie for about a decade now.
A developer, Nuport Developments, is to submit
plans to build new housing developments at Larne
West and Cloverbrook along with 86% of the
remaining stretch of the road. Another
developer, Antrim Construction, is to build the
last 14% in conjunction with the
partially-completed Porter Green development. A
public consultation into the proposals took
place in mid September. In a Belfast
Telegraph article the developer noted that
permission had not yet been granted, but
assuming it was granted work on the houses would
begin "immediately" and last up to ten years.
It's not clear at what point during the "ten
years" the road elements would be completed, but
at any rate it's all part of a process that
should eventually see the road completed as per
the map further up the page. The recent upgrade
of the A8 to dual-carriageway standard has also
helped make Larne a more convenient place for
commuters to live. With thanks to John Corr for
information on these proposals.
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