A5 Dualling Londonderry to Aughnacloy ("Western Transport Corridor" or A5WTC) |
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Click here to jump straight down to updates for this scheme This ambitious road scheme, which is being progressed thanks partly to £400m of the necessary funds being made available by the Republic of Ireland, will be the single largest road scheme ever undertaken in Northern Ireland. In one single project the entire 55 mile long A5 will be upgraded to a high-quality dual-carriageway. The A5 is the main north-south route in the west of the province connecting the A4/M1 route which runs across the south of the province to the A6 route which runs across the north. It serves the principal towns of Omagh and Strabane along the way, as well as terminating in Londonderry city. From an all-Ireland perspective the A5 is an extension of the Irish N2 road, the main route from Dublin to Derry and Donegal. The map below shows the existing A5, with the extent of the project illustrated by the red line (click here for an interactive and zoomable map of the proposed route):
The standard of the proposed road is very high (technical term is "Category 6"). It will consist of two 7.3 metre carriageways with 1 metre hard strips on either side and a 2.5 metre crash barrier, as shown below. The central reservation will be continuous, ie there will be no right-turns. This means that all junctions will be either grade separated, be limited to left-in/left-out movements only, or may consist of at-grade roundabouts.
Image clipped from a PDF on the A5WTC site at this location. Route The route can be seen in this PDF file, released on 21st July 2009. The description of the route is as follows: "It starts at the Derry end with a new single carriageway by-pass to the west of New Buildings. Immediately south of New Buildings there will be a roundabout which will be the start of the new dual carriageway. This roundabout will also facilitate possible future road links between the A5 and the A6 and also across the River Foyle to the west of the City and Donegal. Running southwards from New Buildings, the preferred route tracks west of Magheramason, east of Bready, west of Cloghcor and Ballymagorry and by-passes Strabane to the west." "The preferred route passes between Sion Mills and Glebe, passes west of Victoria Bridge and Newtownstewart and continues west of Mountjoy and Omagh. At the southern end, the preferred route tracks to the west of Garvaghy and Ballygawley before bypassing Aughnacloy on its east side to meet with the A28 Armagh/Newry route. From this point, a short section of single carriageway will facilitate connection to the proposed improvements to upgrade the N2 route in County Monaghan." (source: DRD) Material published in February 2009 suggests where the major junctions will be located (although note that there may be additional left-in/left-out junctions between these). It is suggested at this stage that these major junctions may be located as follows:
Cross Border Issues The scheme ties in neatly to certain other projects, principally the N14 dualling scheme in county Donegal and the A4 dualling scheme from Ballygawley to Dungannon. The road will likely join the Strabane-Lifford link road which is currently in the advance planning stages and which is designed to tie the upgraded N14 into the existing A5. Other schemes in the pipeline, such as the 2+1 upgrade of the A5 from Londonderry to Strabane, and phase 3 of the Strabane Bypass, have been abandoned as they have been rendered redundant by this much larger scheme. The offer of funding was accepted by the Northern Ireland Executive at a plenary session of the North-South Ministerial Council on 17 July 2007. The press release states that "The Northern Ireland Executive confirmed its acceptance, in principle, to taking forward these two major road projects." and then that "The route serving the North West Gateway will be taken forward in line with funding and accountability, planning, management and delivery arrangements agreed between the Irish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. Relevant Ministers will take forward the necessary steps to progress this project, including the early commencement of a route corridor study." Due to its size, and its cross-border nature, the project is being managed by a three-tier structure which is (starting with the most senior):
23 Jan 2010: In the Assembly on 18th January, the deputy First Minister reported on a meeting held by the North-South Ministerial Council which discussed the A5. He reported that the Irish government made a payment of €9 million in December, which represents a small initial amount of the £400m that they have committed to the scheme. The Irish government also re-committed themselves to the scheme, which the deputy First Minister described as important, "in view of the debate on the economic situation North and South". He also recognised that some landowners are opposing the scheme for various reasons, but he has chosen to take quite a strong stance on this when he said "let nobody be in any doubt whatsoever that [the A5 and A8 schemes] will go ahead. They are vital for us if we are to develop the economy and a road infrastructure that will allow us to attract inward investment." 14 Dec 2009: Last week the DRD officially announced the names of the three contractors that have been appointed to undertake the detailed design and construction of the three phases. The final list is as follows, confirming that the details publicised a month ago (see below) was correct:
16 Nov 2009: In the Assembly today, the Minister of Regional Development reaffirmed that both he and his Southern counterparts are committed to this scheme, saying "If elected representatives continue to question it, they may create a degree of uncertainty about the project. On every occasion that we have been asked about it, the commitment from the authorities, North and South, has been restated and confirmed". However, while the political will is definitely there, I believe there is still a genuine question mark in the current financial climate over whether or not the high level of funding required will be available in time to meet the tight construction timetable. In any case, the contracts for construction are due to be announce soon, but the information I have says that the appointed contractors will be as follows (unverified and subject to change):
This information is to be confirmed by the end of November. 2 Nov 2009: Roads Service have given more details of the timescale for the scheme over the next few years:
This assumes that the funding is available at the time of construction. However, to date, the Republic of Ireland has given no indication that their contribution will not be forthcoming despite the uncertain financial climate. 16 August 2009: A more detailed version of the preferred route is now available on the "interactive map" on the official A5 web site here. A few other comments can be made since the previous update. Firstly, a detailed look at the alignment of the road past Strabane strongly suggests that the junction between the A5 and the N14/N15 to county Donegal may be an at-grade roundabout. This is because the A5 appears to take a very steep corner here, much too steep for a flowing road. Of course it is also possible that the junction could take the form of a trumpet interchange with the southern end of the A5 flowing directly onto the N14, while the northern part of the A5 is the joining road. This would be a much better option, as major roads like the A1 have been plagued for years by isolated roundabouts such as the one at Hillsborough which cause unnecessary congestion. Michelle Greer, who is the project manager for the central portion of the A5 project, wrote to me to clarify the standard of junctions. She said "we are designing the road to Category 6 under the DMRB (Design Manual for Roads & Bridges... This means that at the lower end of that category we could end up with at-grade junctions (ie roundabouts) and left in/left out junctions along its length. However it also allows for grade separation of junctions... it is not yet a given that all major junctions will be grade separated." This is useful clarification and relevant to the Strabane question. Aso, a site visitor reported that they were told at the public exhibition that the A5 passes quite close to Omagh in order to encourage as much traffic as possible off the local road network and onto the new road. Finally, the cost has now been estimated as £844m. This is at the upper end of the £650m-£850m estimate made back in November 2008, and means that the Irish government's contribution of £400m will pay for less than half the cost of the scheme, with Roads Service left to find £444m to fund it. 23 July 2009: The preferred route was announced on Tuesday, as expected, and was generally in line with what we knew from Noel Dempsey's leak last week. Click here for a PDF of the route. Notable elements of the plan include the fact that the road will start south of Newbuildings, with a single-carriageway bypass of Newbuildings leading into Derry itself. This decision will both reduce disruption to property in the south of the city, and suggests that the concept of providing links to the A2 west of the city and the A6 east of the city may proceed. At Strabane, the decision has been made to go west of the town, between the town and the river. The northern part of this route seems to run either on or close to the existing Strabane Bypass, while the southern part seems to take an offline route further west than the Bypass. The road takes an almost entirely offline route from there all the way to Aughnacloy, which will leave the current road largely intact. It bypasses Newtownstewart to the west (eliminating the need for two more bridges on the existing Newtownstewart Bypass). The road swings by Omagh on the west side, choosing one of the options that is closer to the town. The route crosses the A4 west of the existing (and new) Ballygawley roundabouts, does not utilise the current realignment work at Tullyvar and finally bypasses Aughnacloy on the eastern side to connect with the N2 in county Monaghan. All told, the proposed route seems fair enough. If it happens (which will be dependant on money) it will be a very impressive scheme with the potential to reduce journey times on the entire route by 20 minutes. 14 July 2009: A week before it was due to be announced, Irish Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, has accidentally leaked the preferred route of the scheme via a photograph on his web site! The picture is not very clear, but it is possible to discern the route (thick black line) against the current A5 (thin red line). The route appears to include the following elements:
This information is due to be publicly announced by Conor Murphy on 21st July in Omagh. With thanks to Kieran4003 who spotted this picture. 12 July 2009: Following the forthcoming announcement of the preferred route for the scheme (21 July) Roads Service and Mouchel (the consultants) will be holding public exhibitions as follows:
As always, I would strongly encourage all those with an interest in the scheme to turn up at one of these events as they are the main way to get your views heard. 23 June 2009: The word on the street is that the preferred route for this scheme will be announced in Omagh on 21st July 2009. This is when we will finally know where Roads Service plan to put the road (subject to the public inquiry). 23 May 2009: The Regional Development Minister gave an update on the scheme to the Assembly two weeks ago. He said that the selection of preferred route would be completed in "mid 2009", with the draft statutory orders (legal papers required to progress the project) published "by late 2010". He also said that the procurement process was now underway - divided into three simultaneous phases:
As this project is dependant on £400m from the Republic of Ireland, there is public concern that in the current Recession the Republic may withdraw this promise. However the Minister said that he had been "very forcefully assured... that funding will be forthcoming", and that he has been assured of this a number of times by various people including the Taoiseach. 6 March 2009: The public consultations happened in February as planned, and the response was described as "phenomenal" and "positive". Lots of PDF files outlining the current position and detailed maps of the four route options now being considered can be downloaded from here. These documents suggest that the preferred route will be announced in the summer of 2009, a final accouncement in Autumn 2010, public inquiry perhaps in 2011 with construction perhaps in the period 2012-2015. This is an ambitious timetable, and will be subject to the availability of finance when the time comes. The confirmation that the scheme will have a continuous central reservation is excellent news, and the junction locations seem very appropriate. The only slight disappointment is that there will just be 1 metre hard strips, rather than full hard shoulders. Hard shoulders are an important safety feature since they allow broken down motorists to get their vehicle fully clear of the fast moving traffic, although they do admittedly add several metres to the road width. Finally, one of the members of the A5WTC team e-mailed me to confirm that the estimated cost of the scheme remains £650-£850m. The £500m-£600m mentioned in February's update is merely the construction cost, ie not including land, fees etc. With thanks to that person for the clarification. 12 Feb 2009: Roads Service have announced that the next round of public constulations will take place in mid February. This is part of the process of selecting the actual route within the route corridor announced in November last year. All interested parties should be encouraged to attend these events as this is one of the key opportunities to have your opinions heard. The events are taking place as follows:
In addition, notice of the tender for the actual construction has appeared on the Roads Service web site. The tender is due to be released this month and it confirms that the project will be carried out as three similarly sized, but separate, tenders. Operators will only be allowed to tender for two of these. This was widely anticipated as the project is much larger than any other single road project in Northern Ireland's history. The information gives the estimated value of the scheme as £500m-600m, substantially less than the figure of £650m-850m quoted in last November's initial report. Despite the economic downturn on both sides of the border, the DRD is adamant that this project will proceed as planned. 10 Nov 2008: The next phase of the project has been completed. Having looked in the general area of the A5 (an area up to 15km wide) the team have now narrowed down the route of the dual-carriageway to a much narrower area, which ranges in width from 500 metres to about 3km. This area is known as the "preferred corridor" and is an essential step because the study area is so huge that simply drawing a line on the map is not possible. You can see the preferred corridor on the interactive map here (the area bordered by the dotted red line). Work has now begun on drawing various route options within this preferred corridor, and it is anticipated that these options will be on display at a public consultation in February or March 2009. A description of the route is given above, and you can read the very detailed initial report on the A5 project web site www.a5wtc.com. This report has estimated the cost at £650m-£850m, considerably more than originally estimated (£540m-£660m). Although the economic situation is now dire, putting question marks in people's heads over the viability of either Stormont or Dublin being able to afford this very expensive road, the Regional Development Minister is insisting that it will go ahead and that it is is on schedule. 28 Apr 2008: The document "Investment Delivery Plan for Roads", released in 2008, includes this scheme in the "preparation pool" of schemes likely to proceed by 2013. Given the enormous size of the project, it is hard to see work on all parts of the route proceeding simultaneously, but we shall see. Also, an official web site has been set up for the scheme at www.a5wtc.com. Information on the site is still relatively scarce, but that is due to the fact that the scheme is at an early stage and not many decisions have been made at this point. 16 Dec 2007: According to the Strabane Chronicle last month, the timescale for the first phases of the project are that the general route corridor will be announced at the end of 2008. This is a general path, perhaps a mile or so wide, that determines things like which sides of major towns the route will go but is not the specific route. Apparently the exact "preferred" route will be announced in mid 2009. The preferred route is, of course, then subject to public inquiry. Conor Murphy, Regional Development Minister, is quoted as saying in the article that the funding for the scheme has been "ring fenced" and that it will be "fast tracked". It's unclear what this actually means in terms of the normal processes. In 2007 the Irish government offered £400m to the Northern Ireland Executive to be used for the upgrade of the A5 between the Irish border near Aughnacloy and Londonderry, and the A8 between Newtownabbey and Larne. In July 2007 the Executive accepted the funding. In November 2007 the Executive announced that they would proceed with both schemes at a total cost of £660m. As this amount was not allocated separately between the two schemes, the figures above assume that both schemes have the same cost per kilometre. So the Irish contribution given above as £340m, and the total cost of £560m also given above, are based on the assumption that 85% of the funds for the two schemes will go towards the A5 scheme. This may not be accurate and should be taken as indicative only. However, the preferred route corridor announcement of November 2008 estimated that the cost of this scheme would be between £650m and £850m, depending on whether or not the junctions were grade separated (ie flyovers). In a Written Answer in November 2009, the Minister said that the total cost of all three components of the scheme taken separately was £1.11 billion, but insisted that the cost of the combined scheme was still in the region £650m to £850m. Note that in 2004, before the Irish had made their offer, a UK study estimated the cost of this scheme as between £346m and £480m depending on the ambitiousness of the design. Land and property prices will have risen since then, but the figures seem to be in the same ballpark. |
