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Applegreen: NI service stations will create 200 jobs
Northern Ireland's first motorway service stations are to open in the next two years creating more than 200 jobs, it has been announced.
Irish company Petrogas Global said it is investing £25m in the four service stations.
They will each require 50 to 60 staff, managers and sales assistants.
The first service areas will open between junctions 4 and 5 on the M2 near Templepatrick, with two more planned for the M1 in 2015.
Work has already started on the M2 project, which is expected to be completed in March 2015.
The service areas will trade under Petrogas' Applegreen brand.
Applegreen has 12 motorway service areas on the island of Ireland - two based on the Belfast to Dublin route.
The company said its Northern Ireland sites will not be as big as those in the Republic of Ireland, but will include shops, cafes and restaurants.
Robert Etchingham, chief executive of Applegreen, said: "We are constantly looking for new sites to build and acquire, and, although the motorway network in the north has significantly improved in recent years, there is still a shortage of service areas on these major routes."
Environment Minister, Mark H Durkan added: "The development of these new motorway service stations, a first for Northern Ireland, will provide a significant boost to the local economy."
Yes, the M1 one has been under construction for longer than the M2 one, but the M2 one will open first. The M2 one is smaller than the M1 one, but I'd be fairly confident that the difference is access to the site.
The M1 service area attracted a lot of local opposition, including a petition, and as a result it was a made a condition of planning that all construction vehicles must use the M1 rather than the local road network. This means that the off slip and on slip have to be constructed first, before anything else can be done. That's what's currently happening.
The M2 service area has no such condition, so vehicles can access it from the local roads beside the site. So the site work that's currently underway is for the service area proper, not the slip roads, which will probably be built as part of the main contract facilitated by a hard shoulder closure. This will make construction on the M2 service area quicker.
Interestingly, neither site will have any access to the local road network once completed. This means that jobs there will only be open to people with access to a car. I'm a bit surprised that organisations like Sustrans didn't object to the planning application on this basis.
The northbound M2 services are coming along quite well. Passed by here today and the structural steel frame for a building has now been erected. The frame has a double curved roof quite like the MSAs on the IRL M1. It does however appear to be much smaller.
loch_cuan73 wrote:The northbound M2 services are coming along quite well. Passed by here today and the structural steel frame for a building has now been erected. The frame has a double curved roof quite like the MSAs on the IRL M1. It does however appear to be much smaller.
Yes all four service areas are going to be of different sizes. According to the planning applications:
M1 westbound (from Belfast)* will cater for 3750 visitors per day.
M1 eastbound (to Belfast) 2400
M2 northbound (from Belfast)* 2100
M2 southbound (to Belfast) 1400
The two marked with * are the ones currently under construction. The other two are planned to follow at a later date.
loch_cuan73 wrote:The northbound M2 services are coming along quite well. Passed by here today and the structural steel frame for a building has now been erected. The frame has a double curved roof quite like the MSAs on the IRL M1. It does however appear to be much smaller.
Yes all four service areas are going to be of different sizes. According to the planning applications:
M1 westbound (from Belfast)* will cater for 3750 visitors per day.
M1 eastbound (to Belfast) 2400
M2 northbound (from Belfast)* 2100
M2 southbound (to Belfast) 1400
The two marked with * are the ones currently under construction. The other two are planned to follow at a later date.
Will they offer facilities for confused tourists?
ie. a map of how to get straight to Titanic Belfast, and back to Dublin?
Geogregor wrote:So, how are the works progressing? Must be quite advanced by now.
Did they start construction of the services for the opposite carriageways or still building only one in each location?
I haven't been nearby recently to tell - I've seen evidence of works on the M1 in recent weeks, but haven't been able to look closely with driving! Haven't been up the M2. No, as far as I know it's still just one per motorway.
The works on the building for the M2 northbound services now looks quite advanced. Passed last week but didn't notice anything on the south bound side.
The slip road on the M2 Northbound is broadly complete and the temporary speed limit has been removed (just before Christmas).
The construction of the service station building now looks to be complete and it would appear to be at the stage of fitting out internally. However, there would appear to be extensive external site works still to be undertaken.
M2 southbound has not yet commenced (either site or slip roads).
This is the M1 service area seen from Ballyskeagh Bridge on Friday (6 Feb). There seemed to be a lot going on, mostly earthworks. No sign yet of any buildings being started although it's hard to see from this distance.
It may be a coincidence however the hard shoulder on the M2 southbound has now been coned off, directly opposite where the service station is currently being constructed on the Northbound carriageway. Possibly this marks the commencement of the construction of the southbound service station?
Jonathan24 wrote:The slip road on the M2 Northbound is broadly complete and the temporary speed limit has been removed (just before Christmas).
The construction of the service station building now looks to be complete and it would appear to be at the stage of fitting out internally. However, there would appear to be extensive external site works still to be undertaken.
M2 southbound has not yet commenced (either site or slip roads).
I drove past there this week. Those services on the n/b side have sprung from nowhere since the last time I drove that way, which must have been about six months ago. The building looks about finished.
Ditto your observation re. s/b side - no sign of anything going on there.
Jonathan24 wrote:It may be a coincidence however the hard shoulder on the M2 southbound has now been coned off, directly opposite where the service station is currently being constructed on the Northbound carriageway. Possibly this marks the commencement of the construction of the southbound service station?
The field directly beside the coned off area has also been staked out, perhaps marking the limits of the MSA footprint.
I noticed as I drove past on Friday that chopsticks signs have been erected at the end of the new northbound onslips. Unfortunately they seem to have the 'M' written in the correct Motorway font but the '2' is in Transport Roads Service simply don't seem to be able to understand when to properly use the Motorway font anymore.
A42_Sparks wrote:I noticed as I drove past on Friday that chopsticks signs have been erected at the end of the new northbound onslips. Unfortunately they seem to have the 'M' written in the correct Motorway font but the '2' is in Transport Roads Service simply don't seem to be able to understand when to properly use the Motorway font anymore.
Since they haven't exactly been proactive in building motorways of late, they probably have lost the instructions for making new signs, as distinct from replacement ones.
"I intend to always travel a different road"
Ibn Battuta 1304-1368
Jonathan24 wrote:It may be a coincidence however the hard shoulder on the M2 southbound has now been coned off, directly opposite where the service station is currently being constructed on the Northbound carriageway. Possibly this marks the commencement of the construction of the southbound service station?
The field directly beside the coned off area has also been staked out, perhaps marking the limits of the MSA footprint.
Roads Service simply don't seem to be able to understand when to properly use the Motorway font anymore.