A29 road (Northern Ireland)

The A29 is a major road in Northern Ireland; it is mostly a single carriageway and goes through a number of main towns and connects in several places to other major roads.[1]

The route of the A29 in red from Portrush, Co. Antrim, to the border at Drombilla, Co. Louth.

Route

The road begins in the town of Portrush, heading south for a few miles before becoming the ring road around Coleraine. The road includes a short section of dual carriageway between Lodge Road Roundabout and Greenmount as part of the shared route with the A37 (north) where it runs west towards Limavady. At a roundabout built in 2005, just outside Macosquin, the A37 continues west while the A29 heads south towards Garvagh.[2]

After Garvagh, the road goes through Swatragh, Maghera, Tobermore, Desertmartin and Moneymore. It then becomes Dual Carriageway as far as Cookstown, goes through Cookstown and onto Dungannon as single-carriageway the rest of its journey via Armagh, Keady, Newtownhamilton and Drumbilla, County Louth in the Republic of Ireland where it joins the R177.[3]

Tourist attractions

There are a number of tourist attractions on or close to the A29. These include:

  • Portrush, and the nearby Giant's Causeway
  • Coleraine
  • The North West 200 motorcycle races near Coleraine which incorporate part of the A29 into the circuit (Portrush to Coleraine section)
  • Garvagh Museum
  • The Linen Green, Dungannon
  • Armagh Planetarium

Road quality

A number of improvements have been undertaken in recent years, including a roundabout at the meeting with the A37 (north), outside Macosquin to reduce delays and smoothing of hidden dips between Maghera and Moneymore. On other parts of the Maghera-Moneymore route the surface is heavily worn and uneven.

While Cat's Eye's are present to aid night-driving they are often difficult to see and markings at the side of the road, when in 'open country' are of poor quality.

Cookstown is a notorious location for traffic congestion and, during the day, contributes to lengthy delays.

Between Dungannon and Cookstown the village of Carland was once an infamous bad bend: a sharp right-hand turn over a bridge that could not easily accommodate passing vehicles and was usually taken at 5 mph. Work on a 1.2 miles (1.9 km) bypass of this bottleneck began in August 2009 and has been completed. On entering Dungannon, the Thomas Street/Hospital Roundabout is a further source of delay at peak times. While local people have suggested a bypass from the M1/A29 roundabout at Stangmore, east of Dungannon to rejoin the existing A29 after Carland (north of Dungannon), there are no plans to build such a road.[4]

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References
  1. "A29 Cookstown Bypass - overview | Department for Infrastructure". Infrastructure. 25 June 2015. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  2. "A29 (Northern Ireland) - Roader's Digest: The SABRE Wiki". www.sabre-roads.org.uk. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  3. Latitude.to. "GPS coordinates of A29 road (Northern Ireland), United Kingdom. Latitude: 55.1990 Longitude: -6.6540". Latitude.to, maps, geolocated articles, latitude longitude coordinate conversion. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  4. "£110,000 road improvement scheme on A29 Dungannon Road, Cookstown". Northern Ireland Executive. 17 January 2019. Retrieved 15 March 2019.


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