Fulton Hogan Opus Consulting JC Contracting Ltd. The Western Belfast Bypass is an approximately 5-kilometre-long, four lane, grade separated motorway proposed to bypass the northern Christchurch suburb of Belfast. It is estimated that the construction of the motorway will result in 17,000 fewer vehicles using Main North Road through Belfast, and shorten travel times between the north and west of Christchurch. In addition, the motorway will allow for improved public transport, cycling, and pedestrian options on Main North Road. It is expected that 21,500 vehicles per day will use the WBB motorway by 2026. The speed limit along the route will be 100 km/h.
The proposed motorway will link directly from the Christchurch Northern Motorway, at Chaneys interchange, to Johns Road at the Clearwater roundabout, bypassing the current section of State Highway One through the Belfast urban area. It forms part of the Christchurch Western Corridor, which is one of the Roads of National Significance projects previously announced by the Government in 2009.
A northbound off-ramp and southbound on-ramp will be provided at Groynes Road. The existing section of SH1 along Johns Road from The Groynes to Sawyers Arms Road is to be upgraded to a four lane median divided highway. The contract was awarded to Fulton Hogan. Construction began on May 8, 2015 and is expected to take about 3 years to complete. The project was designed under the Safe Systems philosophy offering a forgiving piece of infrastructure for road users. A total of 13km of Safence wire rope safety barrier is to be installed on the project offering run-off-road protection in median and verge locations. The project also utilises Ezy-Guard 4 for locations where a more rigid barrier was more appropriate, these runs were terminated with the SoftStop guardrail end-terminal. The SoftStop is a MASH compliant end-terminal, offering the most up to date safety infrastructure to the travelling public. The products are being installed by JC Contracting, offering the highest quality install.