History of Roads in Ireland - Roads in Northern Ireland

Roads in Northern Ireland

After the partition of Ireland into two states in the 1920s, the road system in Northern Ireland developed very differently to the road system in the Irish Free State (later the Republic of Ireland). A modified version of the British road numbering system was adopted. Numbered roads were initially divided into two classes, A roads and B roads, with motorways being added to the system from the 1960s. In the early 1920s, local authorities in Northern Ireland were given grants from the Roads Board which they used to build new roads and repair and maintain existing roads. The grants were also used to help reduce unemployment by providing work on the roads. Taxes raised through Motor Licence Duties were also used to fund roads. New roads, such as the Great Western Road between Belfast and Antrim were built in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Newtownards Road in Belfast had 'heavy traffic' in 1935-6 and the design of a bypass (later the Sydenham bypass) was discussed in the Stormont parliament; discussions about the need for a bypass had been going on for ten years. The first motorway in the whole of Ireland, the M1, opened in 1962, fifteen years after plans for its construction were first discussed.

The first dual-carriageway in Northern Ireland was the Sydenham bypass, first begun in 1938 and fully opened in 1959. Northern Ireland's longest dual-carriageway is the A1 which connects Belfast to Newry, continuing south to join the N1 at the border from where it continues mainly as motorway to Dublin. The A1 was gradually converted from single-carriageway to dual-carriageway between 1971 and 2009. The most extensive scheme planned at present is the up-grading of the A5 from Derry to the border at Aughnacoly, Co. Tyrone from single- to dual-carriageway as part of the A5 Western Transport Corridor. Sixty percent of the funding for this scheme has come from the government of the Republic.

The main roads in Northern Ireland, which connect well with those in the south, are classified "M"/"A"/"B" as in Great Britain. Whereas the roads in Great Britain are numbered according to a zonal system, there is no available explanation for the allocation of road numbers in Northern Ireland, though their numbering is separate from the system in England, Scotland and Wales. Public roads in Northern Ireland are managed by the Roads Service Northern Ireland. The Roads Service is the only roads authority in Northern Ireland and manages around 25,000 kilometres of public roads. The Roads Service was founded in 1996 as an executive agency of the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland. In 1999, after devolution it became part of the Northern Ireland Department for Regional Development. The Roads Services also operates a ferry service across Strangford Lough between the villages of Strangford and Portaferry.