The A8 in
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
is a 26.1 km (16.2 miles) route connecting the city of
Belfast
Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
with the harbour town of
Larne
Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic territory)[Larne/Latharna]
Placenames Database of Ireland. is a to ...
. One of the busiest routes in the region, the road forms part of the unsigned
European routes E01 and
E18.
Route
For many years predominantly single carriageway, a major upgrade of the road to dual-carriageway was completed in 2015 which
grade separated
In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights ( grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tr ...
all major junctions between Coleman's Corner roundabout and Larne.
Beginning at junction 4 of the
M2 motorway the road is under
motorway restrictions as the
A8(M) for around 1.6 km until it meets a roundabout at Corr's Corner. From this point the road is dual carriageway of varying standard for the entirety of its length, meeting roundabouts at Coleman's Corner and just before Larne. The Harbour Highway, bypassing Larne, is dual carriageway, and includes a
grade-separated
In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights ( grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tr ...
junction with the
A2 and provides a direct link to the Port of Larne.
2015 Upgrade
Beginning in 2012, a major upgrade project costing £133m was undertaken to upgrade the remaining single carriageway section between Coleman's Corner and Larne to
High-quality dual carriageway
A high-quality dual carriageway (HQDC) is a road category in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is defined as an all-purpose dual carriageway road type built to near Controlled-access highway, motorway standards, but without motorway classification ...
and replace all major junctions with
grade separated
In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights ( grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tr ...
overbridges or
LILO junctions to improve safety on a previously very dangerous road.
In addition, the village of
Ballynure
Ballynure () is a village and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish near Ballyclare in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is part of Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council and had a population of 677 people in the 2001 United Kingdom census ...
, for many years a major bottleneck on the route, was bypassed as part of the part the scheme.
References
{{coord, 54.78322, N, 5.94386, W, type:landmark_region:GB_dim:4000, display=title
8-008
Roads in County Antrim