Click here to jump straight down to updates for this scheme.

It has been a common complaint that the main route on the island of Ireland, Belfast to Dublin, involves traffic leaving Belfast along the M1 and then going off at a sliproad, and crawling round two roundabouts before continuing on the A1 dual-carriageway towards Newry and Dublin. The current arrangement uses two related junctions (7 and 8) at Sprucefield which also serves the western end of Lisburn city, a major shopping centre and (since 2004) a large retail park. This scheme will see a bypass constructed to give freeflow access between the A1 and M1 (east).

Two route corridors have been under consideration. These are shown on the map below. It is important to stress that these lines indicate the centres of general route corridors which extend for a few hundred metres on either side of the line shown. They are not final routes. Please do not be alarmed if your property lies on or close to the line itself. The Culcavy East route corridor is shown in blue, and the Central route corridor is shown in red. The purple line is the old 2006 route corridor that is no longer being actively considered. You scan see how the scheme design has advanced in scale since 2006.

History of Scheme

The scheme was outlined in the Belfast Metropolitan Area Plan of 2006. The map below (based on the land protection corridor outlined in the BMAP Plan Amendment Number One, 2006) showed an indicative layout. A road protection corridor was put in place so that this 4.0 km / 2.5 mile route could be built. The cost at that point was estimated at £45m. The scheme was given the formal go-ahead in the document "Investment Delivery Plan for Roads" published in April 2008.

Proposed link at Sprucefield (shown in purple) as of 2006.
This option is no longer under consideration.

Updates

1 Nov 2023: Seven years since the last update, this update is simply to confirm that literally nothing has happened since this scheme was effectively paused in 2015/16. In the summer DFI Roads released a document showing how the current roads programme will be prioritised in the current economic and legislative climate. The document confirms that work on the Sprucefield Bypass "paused", though this is not a change, as it had already been paused anyway. The next concrete thing to happen will be the publication of DFI's new Transport Plan, expected in the next year or so. This plan will determine whether this scheme is still being considered. This will depend not simply on the availability of money (of course, there isn't any!), but the whole policy direction of transport going forward, particularly with the 2022 law change that now requires DFI to de-carbonise transport. I have been contacted every so often by landowners who might be affected by the scheme, so it would be good for them to know either way to avoid decades of property blight.

22 Sep 2016: In my last update two years ago I noted that insufficient funding had been made available to continue development work into 2015, and this situation seems to be continuing. The Department for Infrastructure web page about this scheme was last updated in June 2016 and now says "Due to current budget restrictions there is insufficient funding to allow development work to continue. Progression of the scheme beyond this period will be subject to future budget settlements". That means nothing whatsoever has happened on this scheme since around 2012 and nothing further seems to be planned in the foreseeable future. So this scheme is effectively parked and is now sitting well and truly in the "would be nice" pile, hopefully to be picked up at some point in the years ahead. A big change from 2010 when we were told the road would be constructed by 2018. What a difference a recession makes.

16 Aug 2014: The DRD web page on this scheme is now saying "Due to current budget restrictions there is insufficient funding to allow development work to continue during this financial year, and it is anticipated to remain the case until the end of the 2015 budget period. Progression of the scheme beyond this period will be subject to available funding." The statement is not dated, so it's not clear what "this financial year" refers to, or whether "the end of the 2015 budget period" means April 2015 or April 2016, but either way the bottom line is that nothing is currently happening on this scheme which seems to now be a bit down the list of priorities within Transport NI (the new name for Roads Service). I doubt if we'll see much news about this scheme for the next two or three years, so in the meantime keep enjoying the only remaining set of roundabouts between Belfast and Dublin. Honk honk!

5 Nov 2012: The traffic problems experienced at the Hillsborough roundabout on the A1 were the subject of an adjournment debate in Stormont a fortnight ago. This gave the "roads" Minister the opportunity to update us on this scheme. He did not say much that we do not know, except to comment that Roads Service are giving consideration to signalising the Hillsborough roundabout due to the extensive queues that form here at peak times. He noted that a previous signalisation scheme was cancelled due to "limited support for the scheme among the various representatives". He also said that a free-flow "jet lane" for northbound traffic was ruled out as being unsafe due to adjacent private accesses off the A1. He once again committed to the Sprucefield Bypass, but noting that it was still a future plan with no funding currently identified to build it.

5 April 2012: The Stage 1 report was published last month, albeit without any of the associated maps and diagrams. This document shows that the consultants looked at seven possible route corridors (click for map). One of these is the original 2006 route corridor. However it's clear that the scope of the scheme has grown in ambition. Of the seven corridors, two have been taken forward - the "Culcavy East" corridor passing close to Culcavy, and a "Central" corridor following a smoother, more sweeping version of the 2006 corridor. I have shown these corridors on the Google map above. Both corridors depart from the A1 south of the Hillsborough Roundabout. It's fairly safe to say, therefore, that grade separating Hillsborough Roundabout is no longer part of the scheme. What will probably happen instead is that there will be a new junction for Hillsborough (probably with south-facing sliproads only), but the old roundabout will remain in-situ, demoted to the use of local traffic. Both options tie in to the existing M1 with east-facing sliproads only, meaning that the existing A1 will also have to remain in use for traffic coming from the M1 (west) and from Lisburn. The costs of the two options are given as £104m for Culcavy East and £85m for the Central corridor, both of which are well in excess of the £45m figure given back in 2006, although that was for a much shorter scheme. The Central corridor gives the best 30 year cost/benefit ratio (1.48 compared to 1.02 for Culcavy East). Anything above 1 means that the scheme will bring more benefits than costs, so this implies that the Culcavy East corridor would just about break even, but the Central corridor would be more beneficial overall. In terms of construction, the official line is still "by 2018", but given the number of competing schemes and general lack of money I would regard this as very unlikely.

30 Jan 2011: According to a written question in the Northern Ireland Assembly on 17 December 2010, the consultants that Roads Service appointed in early 2009 (see previous update) are still working on the scheme and will publish a Stage 1 Report "early next year". The Stage 1 Report will outline the route corridors within which further options will be considered. Given that this work has already been ongoing for almost two years, this suggests that there is no particular urgency with this scheme. Indeed, the recent budget cuts mean that it is unlikely to be constructed in the foreseeable future anyway. The Minister is currently giving construction "between 2014 and 2018", but I would be surprised if work is underway even by 2018.

29 Aug 2009: According to Roads Service's report to Lisburn City Council in June 2009, they have now appointed Scott Wilson as consultants to develop proposals for this scheme. It should be noted that the scheme may not follow the "road protection corridor" that I used for my mockup maps above, so could be completely different. The say: "The commission will require the consideration of a range of options and an evaluation of all of the viable options available for capacity enhancement along this route. Proposals would take account of future development proposals in the area and any detailed proposals developed for the road improvement would be subject to public scrutiny through the normal statutory processes."

12 Jan 2009: Roads Service issued a leaflet about the scheme in November. The leaflet doesn't really say anything new, but it does confirm Roads Service's committment to the scheme and suggests that the BMAP "road protection corridor" that is used for the maps above still seems to be valid. The leaflet estimates that the scheme will be completed during the period 2014-2018.