The A29 is a strategic north-south route connecting Coleraine to Armagh via Cookstown and Dungannon. While sections of this route are very good, including a section of dual-carriageway near Moneymore, the section through the village of Carland and particularly over the bridge has a very poor alignment. Traffic crossing the Torrent River bridge must negotiate a right-angle bend which can only be achieved by lorries by using the full width of the road to make the turn. This leads to traffic congestion as lorries queue to take turns crossing the bridge and also leads to accidents.

This scheme will see 1.3km of the road realigned to bypass the troublespot to the east using a new bridge over the River Torrent situated 140 metres north-east of the existing bridge. The bridge will be 12 metres in span while the new road will be constructed 7.3m wide with 1m hard strips and 2.5m grass verges. All six junctions on the route will have right-turn pockets.

History of Scheme

According to this Roads Service document, the scheme was first proposed in the 1970s, with land for the scheme acquired by compulsory purchase in 1987. However despite being brought to tender, funding was unavailable to progress the scheme and it remained on the programme of works within Roads Service throughout the 1990s and 2000s. When the 1987 plans were revisited in 2006 the route required only small modifications at the southern end to meet modern design specifications in terms of forward visibility. This mean extending the new road by 300 metres southwards.

Progress

7 Mar 2008: Roads Service issued their intention to proceed with this scheme in February 2008. This basically means that they have assessed the scheme, listened to all objections and made the decision to proceed towards construction.

17 Nov 2007: The contract for the scheme has appeared on the Roads Service web site. The contract gives the start date as April 2008. It also gives the scheme length as 1.85km, which is substationally longer than the 1.3km figure that has been used up until now. The 1.3km may simply refer to the length of entirely new-build road.

24 Jun 2007: According to this DRD press release, work is progressing on the legal and design processes and work is expected to begin on the ground in early 2008.