M3 motorway

The M3 is a short urban motorway in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It links the M2 in the north of the city to the A2 Sydenham Bypass in the east. Only 1.3 kilometres long, it is the shortest motorway in Northern Ireland. Yet it carries 60,000 vehicles every day. A permanent speed limit of 80 kilometres per hour keeps traffic moving. Plans for the route began in 1956 as the Eastern Approach. By 1964 the scheme had grown into a full Belfast Urban Motorway near the city centre. Financial cuts and public opposition stopped most of that plan. Only the A12 Westlink dual carriageway was built instead. Later, in 1987, the government decided to build a new bridge across the River Lagan. The Lagan Bridge opened in 1995, and the full M3 route was completed in 1998. The motorway crosses the River Lagan on a 160-metre arched concrete bridge. The bridge has two separate parallel spans made of pre-cast segments. It sits beside the older Queen’s Bridge and the modern A12 Westlink. The M3 shows how Belfast adapted its transport plans over half a century.