Police have advised motorists to expect a number of overnight road closures as the last section of a gas turbine is transported from Belfast Harbour West to Kilroot Power Station, in Carrickfergus.
Police will provide escort to the slow moving 6.45m x 80.2m load weighing 529 Tonnes, tonight, Saturday 30 July from 11pm, into the early hours of Sunday morning, 31 July.
This is the third consecutive weekend that abnormal loads have been transported to the County Antrim power plant, and the PSNI have advised that this will be the last for in this series of movements.
A spokesperson for the Police Service of Northern Ireland said:
“The M2 citybound and M5 citybound will be closed on Saturday 30 July from 23:00 into the early hours of Sunday 31 July.
“Load will access the M2 directly on Fortwilliam Roundabout city-bound, to travel northwards on the M2 and M5 to Kilroot on Belfast-bound lanes, using a road closure.
“It is therefore required that the M2 citybound will be closed at Junction 2 Greencastle with traffic leaving the Motorway to join the A2 Shore Road to head towards Belfast. The A2 Shore Road on-slip to the M2 citybound at Greencastle will also be closed.
“There will be no access to the M5 Citybound at the Rushpark Roundabout - the Police will make operational decisions and redirect traffic as required as the load moves leaves the M5 at Rushpark and through the Whiteabbey area. Given the time of day with low traffic volumes any disruption to traffic should be minimal.
“Please comply with any instructions given by Police/Escort officers.
“Please ensure routes are kept clear in order to allow this load to move unhindered as it passes along A2 Shore Road.”
The full route of the load movement is:
BELFAST Harbour West - Dargan Rd - M2 on Jct 1 Fortwilliam - M2 - M5 - A2 - Carrickfergus - A2 - KILROOT (the load will move back onto the Carrickfergus / Kilroot bound lanes on the A2 Shore Road around Whiteabbey).
The police spokesperson concluded:
“Our Ab Load movement office have confirmed that to the best of their knowledge these are the longest and heaviest Ab Loads to ever use the road network in Northern Ireland.”
