to drive on a motorway. At the end of 1965 UK Transport Minister Tom Fraser and his successor Barbara Castle imposed a blanket 70 mph (113 km/h) speed limit on motorways in Great Britain, but the recently constructed Northern Ireland M1 remained free of a blanket speed limit for several years. Junctions 1 to 6 opened on 10 July 1962 The motorway follows the route of the former Lagan Canal between junctions 2 and 6. The first user of the road was a motorcyclist, Robert McFall of Belfast. The section between Junctions 1 and 3 was subsequently widened to three lanes in each direction. Junctions 6 to 7 opened on 15 December 1963 Junctions 7 to 9 opened on 6 December 1965 Junctions 9 to 10 opened on 28 February 1966 Junctions 10 to 11 opened on 27 November 1967 Junctions 11 to 12 opened on 29 January 1968 Junctions 12 to 13 opened on 1 December 1964 Junctions 13 to 15 opened on 23 December 1967 Junctions 12 to 15 were constructed across a peat bog which is up to 12 metres deep, which required the removal of 3.4 million cubic metres of peat. Several junctions were omitted from the original construction, as these were for future planned motorways, some of these have now been used for other road plans: Junction 3 was opened in 1988. Junction 8 was opened in 2003. This provides access to the A1 in both directions, whilst junction 7 had its slip roads facing west closed. Junction 8 had originally been planned for a different location for the M11 motorway to relieve the A1 towards the border with the Republic of Ireland. The M1 is straight and flat on the stretch between Junctions 9 and 10 and on the stretch between Junctions 12 and 13, and an urban myth exists claiming that these were to be used as supplementary runways by the United States Air Force in the event of a major conflict with the Soviet Union. By the mid 2000s the M1 in Belfast had high traffic flows at peak times and suffered from congestion. To relieve this work commenced early in 2006 to replace the roundabout at junction 1 with a fully grade separated junction through which the M1 now flows directly onto the A12 Westlink dual-carriageway. As part of the scheme, the M1 was widened from two to three lanes in