M12 (Northern Ireland)

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Steven
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M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by Steven »

The Northern Irish M12 is pretty well known for being brilliant, in a really pathetic way.

As mentioned elsewhere, I've acquired an OSNI Half Inch sheet of The South East from 1968, and it shows the M12, sort of, in a way I've never seen before.

Is it at all accurate? Was it ever really like this? Did it really have a temporary terminus on the B2? I am assuming that the link to the unclassified road is a mapping error, or just not showing the stopped up road quite accurately.
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by Ross Spur »

Steven wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 14:44 Is it at all accurate? Was it ever really like this? Did it really have a temporary terminus on the B2? I am assuming that the link to the unclassified road is a mapping error, or just not showing the stopped up road quite accurately.
It's also shown like that in the Reader's Digest Book of the Road 1970 edition, complete with a motorway strip map which states "no exit for Eastbound traffic using M1". Is it out of copyright to post a copy?

Handy exit for Portadown.
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by A42_Sparks »

Steven wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 14:44 Is it at all accurate? Was it ever really like this? Did it really have a temporary terminus on the B2? I am assuming that the link to the unclassified road is a mapping error, or just not showing the stopped up road quite accurately.
Yes the east-facing sliproads were built in 1967 at the same time as the M1 and originally the M12 ended at a temporary terminus on Charlestown Road which was the B2 back then. In 1970 the M12 was extended to its current terminus at j2 Carn.

The link to the unclassified Ballynacor Lane is almost certainly a mapping error or copyright trap, there was never access to it from the M12 sliproad.
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by nowster »

Ross Spur wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 17:48 It's also shown like that in the Reader's Digest Book of the Road 1970 edition, complete with a motorway strip map which states "no exit for Eastbound traffic using M1". Is it out of copyright to post a copy?
Not out of copyright for another 20 years, but a scan of just the relevant area might be considered fair use/dealing.
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by nowster »

And talking of spontaneous motorways, the M12 starts in the middle of roundabout junction!

https://goo.gl/maps/xfU8FkmoC5YMcJsP8
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by Ross Spur »

nowster wrote: Fri Jan 29, 2021 00:06 Not out of copyright for another 20 years, but a scan of just the relevant area might be considered fair use/dealing.
The strip map is here to show the junction in 1970:
M1 Northern Ireland 1970 strip map re M12 junction.jpg
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by Owain »

nowster wrote: Fri Jan 29, 2021 00:14 And talking of spontaneous motorways, the M12 starts in the middle of roundabout junction!

https://goo.gl/maps/xfU8FkmoC5YMcJsP8
You're right! And very precisely so...

Screenshot (61).png

Annoyingly it's the only piece of the NI motorway network that I haven't driven. At least, when I get round to it, I won't have to drive all the way down the loop to the A3; I can just U-turn under the roundabout. :devil:
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by A42_Sparks »

Ross Spur wrote: Sat Jan 30, 2021 15:36 The strip map is here to show the junction in 1970:M1 Northern Ireland 1970 strip map re M12 junction.jpg
Very interesting, do you have strip maps of the rest of the 1970 NI network?

The use of Coleraine for the A45 destination is very odd. Coleraine is a long way away from that junction and not even signed from there today. Coalisland or Cookstown would've been much more appropriate.
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by Ross Spur »

A42_Sparks wrote: Sat Jan 30, 2021 19:30 Very interesting, do you have strip maps of the rest of the 1970 NI network?
There was only the strip map for M1 NI and not all UK motorways were included, probably to give room for some simplified Primary Route strip maps (which I've not come across before). It included Dublin - Belfast - Londonderry.
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by Gav »

s-l1600.jpg
strip map with irish motorways
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A42_Sparks
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by A42_Sparks »

Gav wrote: Mon Feb 01, 2021 17:52 strip map with irish motorways
Thanks for that. It's strange that there seems to be no strip map for the M2 Ballymena bypass - it opened almost two years before the M2 Antrim bypass which is depicted.
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by JohnA14J50 »

Was the loop onto the A3 a temporary measure? Surely it's too close to the roundabout to have been a permanent junction.
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by Chris5156 »

JohnA14J50 wrote: Mon Feb 01, 2021 22:36 Was the loop onto the A3 a temporary measure? Surely it's too close to the roundabout to have been a permanent junction.
It was supposed to be the first part of a cloverleaf junction, to be built at a future date. The A3 Northway would have run as a dual carriageway straddling the railway line, with a new eastbound carriageway on the north side of the tracks, and three more loops plus new left turn sliproads would have been built to make a full cloverleaf. The M12 would have continued south towards the A27.
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by DavidB »

I've just taken a look at my 1974 edition of The Book of the Road, it has an updated strip map for the M1 which still shows the M12 ending on the B2. (It also has a strip map for the M2.)

IMG_3292.JPG
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by AndyB »

I’d be quite certain that the link to Ballynacor Lane was just margin of error as to this day it terminates parallel to the bottom of the slip road embankment. It would probably have been used for construction traffic, but given the elevation of the M12 slip, I’d say we can rule out it ever being connected for anything other than earthmoving plant.

The terminus on Charlestown Road is plausible pending connection to the Carn junction (originally J1, now J2)
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by AndyB »

And here it is - an overview of the M12 temporary terminus.

The M12 we know turned left to reach Charlestown Road, and it appears to have reached Carbet Road here. My guess is that rather than continue straight across, the M12 used the Carbet Road alignment from this point for the very short distance to Charlestown Road - it isn't significant enough to diverge from the straight line shown on a map, and Carbet Road was probably severed to allow this.

Reading along the fenceline in the first link, the bushes between here and the emergency phone appear to mark the deviation from what is now the M12 mainline to Charlestown Road - as you move along the mainline, you can see the embankment rising. My guess, and it's only a guess, is that it was S2 by the time it left the mainline, and the embankment was partially removed to build the southbound carriageway, the northbound carriageway opening earlier.
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by A42_Sparks »

AndyB wrote: Tue Feb 02, 2021 19:12 And here it is - an overview of the M12 temporary terminus
Good bit of detective work AndyB. I'd say it's very likely they used that little bit of Carbet Road for the offslip.
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by AndyB »

Wesley has a photo of the original terminus somewhere. Hopefully it'll turn up and we can see for sure.
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by A42_Sparks »

AndyB wrote: Sat Feb 06, 2021 21:17 Wesley has a photo of the original terminus somewhere. Hopefully it'll turn up and we can see for sure.
I found the photo and it's not actually how I was expecting the layout to be. Charlestown Road uses the little bit of Carbet Road to become a T-junction onto the M12 two-way offslip:

Image
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Re: M12 (Northern Ireland)

Post by A42_Sparks »

Larger version is here.
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