Carrickfergus is a large town, predominantly acting as a dormitory town for Belfast. Due to the gently sloping terrain, the town's suburbs have developed as a grid with three east-west arteries and several north-south arteries. The central east-west artery is Prince Andrew Way which extends across the eastern half of the town from North Road to the Broadlands developments at the east of the town. Prince Andrew Way is known to planners as the "Carrickfergus Spine Road", which describes its purpose quite well. This proposal would see the Spine Road extended westwards to Woodburn Road and then all the way to the B90 Upper Road.

Meanwhile, Sloefield Road is a cul-de-sac that extends north a short distance from the A2 Belfast Road, giving access to a housing development. An associated proposal would extend Sloefield Road north over the railway line (on a new bridge) to meet the B90 Upper Road at the same spot as the extended Spine Road. The objective of these two proposals is to give better access between different parts of the town, and particularly to improve access to the B90 to relieve the busy A2 Belfast Road. These proposals are summarised on the following map (Spine Road in red, Sloefield Road in orange):

The proposals were put forward in this form in the draft Belfast Metropolitan Area Plan of November 2004. The three relevant proposals are:

• Housing proposal CS 05/10 zones some land for housing, planning permission for which would require construction of the section the Spine Road from North Road to Woodburn Road.
• Road proposal CS 13/01 for the section of the Spine Road from Woodburn Road to the B90. The BMAP indicates that this would be developer-funded, presumably by requiring its construction as part of a planning application for nearby land.
• Road proposal CS 13/03 for the extension of Sloefield Road. This would also be developer-funded.

At the time of writing (June 2010) no work has been carried out on any of these schemes and there is no indication of when it may take place. The Spine Road itself was constructed during the 1980s connecting North Road to the Broadlands estate. A short (several hundred metre) extension eastwards from the original terminus to Broadlands Park came into use on 18 Nov 2008. With thanks to Andrew McKeever for this info.

Photos

These are all links to Google StreetView:

• This shows the western end of the current Spine Road.
• This shows the route the Spine Road would take west from North Road.
• This shows where the Spine Road would emerge onto Woodburn Road.
• This shows the route the Spine Road would take west from Woodburn Road.
• This shows the approximate location on the B90 where the Spine Road would terminate.
• This shows the north end of Sloefield Road, which currently ends at a dead end.