Motorway Database

Heading south into Belfast, the M2's famous five-lane section. Completed in the mid 1960s, this was the widest road not just in Ireland but in the whole British Isles until the 1990s.
Photo by Wesley Johnston

Northbound, out of Belfast, the M5 splits off with the right hand two lanes and the M2 turns sharp left through the junction.
Photo by Wesley Johnston

Junction 2 virtually destroyed the village of Greencastle, after which it is named. This is the Main Street with the M2 northbound onslip.
Photo by Wesley Johnston

Approaching the notorious Sandyknowes Roundadbout, junction 4.
Photo by Wesley Johnston

Sandyknowes Roundabout itself, one of Northern Ireland's most famous traffic blackspots. It is something familiar to Brits everywhere - a signalised roundabout interchange with too many exits. It was caught here on a Sunday morning.
Photo by Wesley Johnston

Looking east towards junction 5, the M2 looks like any other British motorway.
Photo by Wesley Johnston

Looking east from the Crosskennan bridge, junction 7. This junction currently only has offslips, but onslips are to be built in 2005/06. The carriageways split here as the M2 was to continue to Ballymena with the M22 continuing on to Londonderry. This never happened, so the M2 simply becomes the M22.
Photo by Wesley Johnston

An aerial photo shows the scale of the split in the carriageways - it's enormous! The M2 proper would have followed the northbound side (to the left here). The unbuilt mainline of the junction through the middle is hinted at towards the top left, with a clearing through the trees continuing into a patch of wooded land to the north of the motorway.
Photo by Wesley Johnston

The southern end of the Ballymena bypass is where the M2 would have ended up from that gap in the carriageways - underneath the bridge this photo was taken from. There are now plans to use this underpass to connect up to the A26.
Photo by Wesley Johnston