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Factfile - Images - Timeline - Exit List

Location map Is this the most piecemeal motorway in the UK? It's barely a mile long, but took about eight years to build in three different sections. Ouch.

Northern Ireland had grand motorway plans in the 1960s, with eight single-digit motorways radiating from Belfast throwing off spurs to various provincial towns. Aside from the M1 and M2, none of this happened. The M3 was initially to be the Belfast to Bangor motorway, but as this never got built, the new motorway section across the Lagan Bridge got the number instead.

The M3 is fairly obviously just the last mile of the M2, built in the 1990s when a new crossing over the Lagan was required. It is a continuation of the mainline of the M2 motorway and A2 dual carriageway, which means the three now form a route into the city from the north, looping back out to the north-east on the A2. Why exactly one small part of this route must be called M3 is beyond logical reason. Perhaps the route out to Bangor would have begun by crossing the Lagan here, but if you're only going to build a mile of it, messing about with a number seems picky.

Forgetting its bizarre numbering, the appearance of any new motorway in NI is a cause for celebration, and besides, nobody there actually pays any attention to its number anyway.

Factfile

Start	Belfast (A12)
Finish	Ballymacarrett (A2)
Passes	None
Length	1 mile
Terminates	M2
Spurs	None
Meets	None

Images

Views of the M3 from on and off the road. If you have a photo to contribute, contact me.

Looking north (from a train!), this is the beginning of the M2 ahead of us. To the right of the image, the pair of two-lane carriageways are the beginning of the M3 about to climb onto the Lagan Bridge.
Photo by Wesley Johnston

Underneath the railway we were just travelling on, this is the westbound offslip from the M3. To the left, the main carriageway continues to join the M2, as seen in the previous photo.
Photo by Wesley Johnston

The M3 (left) and the railway (right) about to cross the Lagan on their matching bridges.
Photo by Wesley Johnston

Looking north at the Lagan Bridge, with the railway in the foreground (complete with train) and the M3 behind it, with streetlights and gantry signs visible.
Photo by Wesley Johnston

Construction Timeline

When the various parts of the M3 were built, listed in chronological order.

Open	Section
1995	Lagan Bridge
1998	Connection to A2 Sydenham Bypass

Exit List

All the junctions and destinations along the route.

Junction	Southbound			Northbound
	Belfast City Hollywood Bangor A2	EAST A2	A20 A2	N/A

	Belfast (E) Outer Ring (A55) Newtownards A20
	1 mile, 4 lanes
	Lagan			Lagan
				1 mile, 4 lanes
(M2 J1A)	N/A	M2 *NORTH*	A2 A12 A2	Antrim Ballymena Coleraine Londonderry M2

				Belfast (W) Lisburn Craigavon A12 (M1 )