As Belfast grew southwards in the 1980s the need grew for a new way of accessing the areas such as Dunmurry, Poleglass, Twinbrook, Derriaghy and the similarly growing north side of Lisburn. Although the M1 ran right through the area, the only access points were junction 2 (2 miles north) and junction 6, in Lisburn. In 1988, construction began on a new limited access junction at Black's Road in Dunmurry which would provide sliproads in the Belfast direction.

This presented a problem however - Black's Road was a local road with two lanes and it would not be feasible to drop thousands of vehicles onto it from the M1. So around the same time (can anyone give me actual dates?) construction took place on the A512 dual-carriageway through part of what is today Colinvalley Golf Course. Feeding directly onto the Black's Road sliproads, this road sped vehicles away from the new junction to a roundabout which gave them the choice of either continuing into Poleglass or heading south towards Twinbrook and Lisburn. The scheme to built the sliproads also included widening Black's Road under the M1 by adding a second underpass to the south of the existing one.

The road today is very busy and performs well, although it does have a bit of a reputation as a "joyriders' alley". Often, people travelling around 6 or 7am will have to go round the odd abandoned car embedded in a lamp post! The completion of the North Lisburn Feeder Road (see link above) which feeds off the Lisburn end of this route will attract even more traffic onto the A512.

Today there are continual calls to add south-facing sliproads at Black's Road since people wishing to access this entire area from the west and south have to continue to junction 2 and double back. So many people wish to make this manoeuvre that it is funny that even today there are no firm plans to add the necessary sliproads.

Photos

The A512 Old Golf Course Road seen from its terminus at Black's Road in July 2006. The M1 onslip is directly behind the camera. [Photo by Wesley Johnston]