This is a sub-page of the main M2 widening page and includes old progress reports.

17 May 2008: Work is progressing slowly but surely. The sign on the uphill section is now giving the completion date as "November 2009". Given that the completion date was given as "spring 2009" when work began, and "summer 2009" in January, this suggests that work is running progressively behind schedule. In terms of the carriageway itself, work at the bottom of the hill section appears to be most advanced, with widening works towards the upper end (pic 1) less developed. Work to replace and upgrade the bridges is also progressing. At the Hightown Road bridge, the new bridge abutments are now complete and work is underway on the pillars in the central reservation (pic 2). At Collinbridge, (where a small section of the future bridge is in use) the foundation trenches for the rest of the new abutments have been excavated, but not yet built. Work at Arthur Bridge is at a similar stage, where work on the abutments is underway. The works on the parapets of Bellevue Bridge (which is not being demolished) have moved from the north to the south side. Work to widen the carriageway over the bridges at the Greencastle interchange are also well underway.

Pic 1: The M2 looking towards Belfast from Hightown Road
bridge in mid May 2008. [Wesley Johnston]

Pic 2: The bridge abutments for the new Hightown Road bridge in mid May 2008. [Wesley Johnston]

14 Apr 2008: The pictures in this update were provided by Owen Fulton in late March, but only now have I got round to putting them up... The Hightown Road bridge was discussed in the last update. The central spans of the first half of Collin Bridge are now in place, but have not been connected to the land at either end (pic 1). Work to strengthen the Bellevue Bridge (which is not being demolished) began in late February and is currently taking place on the up-hill side (pic 2). The work has so far included removal of the existing pavement and parapet. The widening on the M2 south of here is progressing well with the expanded road embankment completed (pic 3) but the road surface no constructed on top. Work at Arthur Bridge is currently at the stage of constructing the bridge abutments and central pillar. Finally, at Greencastle preliminary work has started on widening the M2 to three lanes through the junction.

Pic 1: Collin Bridge in late March 2008 with the new section of widening bridge being built

on the left, and half the old bridge on the right providing road access. [Owen Fulton]

Pic 2: The northern side of Bellevue Bridge in late March 2008 where the

parapet had been removed. [Owen Fulton]

Pic 3: The M2 looking south from Bellevue Bridge in late March 2008, showing the widened

road embankment taking shape on the left. [Owen Fulton]

18 Mar 2008: The 51 year old Hightown Road bridge is now gone (see below). Only a thin sliver of the future bridge is in place, and it is now acting as a temporary footbridge. Traffic lights have been added on Sandyknowes roundabout at the Mallusk entrance to help people emerge from the Hightown area.

The site of the Hightown Road bridge in mid March 2008, taken from the truncated end of Hightown Road. A thin sliver of the new bridge has been built as a temporary footbridge. [Wesley Johnston]

3 Mar 2008: Work to demolish the Hightown Road Bridge is now well underway, while politicans continue to argue at Stormont about the effects the closure is having on traffic at Sandyknowes roundabout. Work has also begun at Greencastle where the bridges over the M5 are being widened to three lanes each way.

1 Feb 2008: This week the Hightown Road bridge closed for "up to" 12 months, although the contractor has apparently agreed to try to get the new bridge opened by Christmas 2008. Residents as well as Newtownabbey Borough Council are not happy and traffi congestion does seem to have been severe in the area. Also, half of Arthur, or Longlands, Bridge has now been demolished (similar to what has already happened at Collin Bridge) while strengthening and upgrade work to Bellevue Bridge (which will not be demolished) has begun. This means that work is now underway on all four bridges as well as the main carriageway of the M2 itself. In addition, Roads Service are now saying that work will proceed into "Summer 2009", whereas in September 07 they said that it would be "Spring 2009". This implies some slippage to the schedule.

View across Collin Bridge in December 2007. [Anonymous contributor]

Half of Arthur (Longlands) Bridge after the rest was demolished in early January 2008. The metal sheeting protects the foundations for the new, wider, abutments. [Anonymous contributor]

8 Jan 2008: The Hightown Road bridge will close on 21 January for "up to a year". Demolition itself will take place in February. While a temporary footbridge has been erected, Roads Service have said that after re-examining the site it would still "not be possible to provide a temporary bridge without the loss of residential property". To at least alleviate the inevitable traffic chaos that this will cause, Roads Service have agreed to install a set of traffic lights on Sandyknowes roundabout at Scullions Road, base at least one ambulance at Sandyknowes, continue to tweak the traffic lights on the routes into the Hightown area and ensure that any blockages on the diversionary routes are cleared very quickly. See this press release for full details.

22 Nov 2007: The Hightown Road bridge re-opened today, about a week ahead of schedule. Such was the disruption during the one-month closure that residents met with Roads Service who agreed to re-examine the possibility of a temporary bridge during the next closure which will be from February 2008 for about a year. Work is ongoing now on all three of the bridges affected by the works (Hightown, Collin and Arthur bridges). The pictures below show examples of the works both on the mainline and the bridge in early November. December will see some beams lifted into place, probably at Collin Bridge.

M2 and Hightown Bridge seen citybound on 4 Nov 2007. An example of the retaining wall structure that supports sections of the widened carriageway is visible on the left. [Wesley Johnston]

M2 citybound where it passes the Valley Park on 4 Nov 2007. Large amounts of fill have been used here to widen the carriageway which is on an embankment at this point. [Wesley Johnston]

15 Oct 2007: According to this press release, the Hightown Road bridge will be closed from 21 October 07, re-opening for a few weeks in December 2007, and then closing again for a further year. The first closure is to allow service diversion (pipes, cables etc), and then the closure after Christmas is to actually demolish and rebuild the bridge. Access will apparently remain open to pedestrians at all times, but vehicles will have to use Sandyknowes roundabout as a diversionary route. Progress is proceeding well on the M2, with new bridge abutments taking shape both at Hightown Road and Collin Bridge. The widening programme itself is going well, with progress evident at all points of the route. Road users I have spoken to report that traffic is much worse in the evening peak going up the hill, due to the loss of one of the three lanes, and the fact that this forces HGVs to use lane two. Roads Service are attempting to mitigate this by closing the countrybound onslip at Greencastle (j2) during the evening peak to try to keep traffic flowing. Unfortunately however there is little more that can be done other than to hope that the scheme remains on schedule for completion in about 18 months.

14 Sep 2007: Collin Bridge reopened to traffic this week after a month-long unplanned closure. An anonymous contributor has sent a couple more photos of the works as they were in late August:

The M2 looking south (down hill) from Collin Bridge in late August 2007 showing widening works. Bellevue Bridge is ahead. [Anonymous contributor]

View north east across Collin Bridge after the roadway in the foreground collapsed in heavy rain. The green structure is a temporary footbridge. Similar view to the one below. [Anonymous contributor]

1 Sep 2007: Over the summer work has got underway in a huge way on the M2. The road has been widened a little on both sides, since the central reservation will be realigned slightly to fit the new 3+3 geometry into the road corridor. Beside Valley Park, where the M2 is higher than the adjacent land, hundreds of tons of rock have been poured onto the embankments. Further up the hill towards Glengormley, where the M2 is in a cutting, the sides themselves have been dug away and support structures put in place. At Hightown Road bridge foundations are now in place for the widened part of the bridgeabutments, but the existing bridge has not yet been removed and remains open to traffic. The plan at Collin Bridge was originally to close it completely to demolish and rebuilt it. However, engineers realised that they could demolish half the deck, build the new bridge *over* the original abutments, then demolish the other half, repeat the procedure and finally remove the former abutment from in front of the new one. This was implemented in early August with traffic controls (see picture below). However, about a week later, a heavy rain storm caused a flood of water to pour down Collinbridge Road and spill over the sides of the bridge onto the M2. The motorway was closed, but the flood caused the approach to the western end of the bridge to fail and subsequently collapse, carrying pieces of the road down onto the site below. Collinbridge Road was closed and, as this was the only vehicular access to the residential area, a new access route to the Collinbridge estate was hastily constructed through a neighbouring estate giving access to the Highown Road. By late August a footbridge had been craned into place, but it looks unlikely that the bridge will reopen any time soon since the western approach has now been totally removed by machinery. Finally, at Arthur Bridge, some preliminary site works have begun but the bridge remains open. In light of the disaster at Collin Bridge, it remains to be seen how this bridge will be rebuilt.

The short-lived half-and-half Collin Bridge, here seen on 4 August 2007. One half of the deck was removed as part of a plan to keep the road open to traffic. However, the ground on which the photographer is standing collapsed down onto the site below in a rain storm a few days later, requiring the complete closure of the road to traffic. [Photo by Wesley Johnston]

4 July 2007: Work on the Hightown Road bridge is progressing well. The leftmost of the three up-hill lanes of the M2 hill section were closed last week, and will remain closed for the next 4 months. This is to allow widening works on the verge on this site. Also, traffic on the citybound carriageway will find that their lanes have been narrowed towards the central reservation. This is to allow widening works on the verge on this site. Also, preliminary works have been taking place on Collin Bridge, which is one of the 3 bridges over the M2 that will be replaced.

24 Jun 2007: Work appears to have started on new support structures for the widened carriageway on each side of the Hightown Road bridge abutments. These are made from steel frame cages filled with large stones. Still no word on when the bridge itself will be demolished.

10 May 2007: In this press release, reporting a meeting with Newtownabbey Council, Roads Service say that the project proper will commence in Summer 2007, which is substantially earlier than expected. Until now they have been giving the project commencement as 2008.

11 Mar 2007: Work began in earnest in February 2007 along the side of the M2 at Hightown bridge. JCBs have dug away parts of the embankments on each side of the bridge: these are likely to be part of the process to widen the motorway and install retaining walls. This extra space will be necessary for traffic management while the new bridge piers are being constructed. An earthen ramp has also been built on the north eastern side of the bridge leading up from the M2 - this may be to allow demolition/construction vehicles to access the bridge. No sign yet of the temporary footbridge.

Nov 2006: Tree removal at Hightown Road Bridge took place in late November 2006, presumably so that it would be complete before the bird nesting season.

July 2006: Note that according to this consultation document released in July 2006, the cost of this scheme was given as £20m, not £29m. This may be an error.