Status
|
Construction scheme
(current) |
Contractor
|
Duo Operations Ltd,
Augher (www.duoplc.com)
|
Where
|
To
construct a road link from the A57
Templepatrick Road to the west of
Ballyclare to the B94 Rashee Road north
of Ballyclare via the B95 Doagh Road. |
Total
Length
|
3.2 km / 2.0 miles
|
Dates
|
Road has been proposed
since 1980s
Included in draft
Belfast Metropolitan Area Plan - 2004
27 August 2009 - KPL
announce plans to proceed
Planning permission
granted - 11 Jan 2011
Scheme on hold (as of Mar 2012)
KPL Group placed into
administration - Feb 2014
Neptune Group acquire land and indicate
a desire to proceed with the road - Nov
2015
(Previously due to
commence Feb 2012 as of Dec 2011; "after
Mar 2011" as of Aug 2010; August 2010 as
of May 2010)
Roundabout at A57 and
100 metres of relief road completed -
mid 2018
Planning permission
for remainder of relief road granted -
November 2019
Construction on section around Doagh
Road began - spring 2020
Work on Doagh Road to Templepatrick Road
stretch due to take place from Jan to
Nov 2021
|
Cost
|
£25m - funded by
private developer (as of 2009)
|
See
Also
|
Coverage
of Aug 2009 announcement -
Ballyclare Gazette
|
Click here to
jump straight down to updates for this
scheme.
Current area plans have marked Ballyclare as a
town for significant growth to accommodate some
of Northern Ireland's fast growing population.
However the town is severly limited by the fact
that the only way to get from the north of the
town to the south, and hence to Belfast, is via
the congested main street. This proposal will
not necessarily diminish the traffic
on the main street, but it should allow
continued housing development in the town
without increasing congestion at that
location. It will see a new two-lane road link
running round the north west of the town
connecting the A57 Templepatrick Road to the
west of Ballyclare to the B94 Rashee Road north
of Ballyclare via the B95 Doagh Road. This will
include a second bridge over the Six Mile Water.
The approximate route is shown below (scroll
further down for an alternative map).

The proposal has been on
the cards for at least 20 years, and was most
recently included in the Belfast Metropolitan
Area Plan 2015 (first published 2004).
Construction of the road was always planned to
be carried out by private developers, but it was
not until August 2009 that a developer - KPL
Group - secured sufficient land to announce its
construction which the Ballyclare Gazette described
as "the largest and most expensive privately
funded road proposal ever brought forward in
Northern Ireland". The road is needed in
order to begin work on a major housing
development which will take up to 20 years to
complete and include around 2000 homes when
completed. A pair of planning applications for
the road have already been submitted, with part
1 being the short section from Templepatrick
Road to Doagh Road, and part 2 being the longer
section from there to Rashee Road. It is still
not certain whether the entire road will be
constructed at once, or just part 1 initially.
Route
Assuming
that the maps released to the public in August
2009 don't change, the route appears to be a
single-carriageway made up as follows:
- A new roundabout on the A57 Templepatrick
Road at the existing Ballyrobert Road
junction.
- Approximately 1km of road going north-west
to a new roundabout on the B95 Doagh Road,
adjacent to the cemetery. This stretch will
include a bridge over the Six Mile Water.
- Approximately 2km of road running in an
S-shape to a new roundabout at Rashee Road
just south of the existing Cogry Road juction.
Note that this route
differs slightly from that proposed in the
Belfast Metropolitan Area Plan in that the
northern section runs further out from the town
than envisaged in that document.
The sketched Google
Maps overlay below shows the approximate
route proposed.
Updates
22 Dec 2020: The Newtownabbey Times reported
on 11 December that the DFI Minister has decided
to approve planning permission for the northern
section of the Ballyclare Relief Road (Doagh
Road to Rashee Road). I am not certain how this
translates into actual planning applications,
but I do note that a planning application
referring to this section of the road seems to
have been submitted
five days later on 16 December
(LA03/2020/0881/RM), but as yet there are no
associated documents to look at. The original
plan, about 15 years ago, was to build the
entire road in one go. The developer seems to
have been pushing to build the road in at least
two phases, which seems to be borne out by the
work that's underway on phase 1 (Templepatrick
Road to Doagh Road). Hopefully the northern half
will be built in a single phase, and that it
doesn't become another unending saga like the
as-yet-uncompleted Larne
West Distributor South!
29 Nov 2020: Work on the scheme paused
due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but is now set to
resume on 4 January 2021. Work on the next phase
will focus on construction of a new roundabout
on Doagh Road and construction of drainage and
the stretch of road from there to the existing
roundabout on the A57 Templepatrick Road. This
may include the new bridge over the Six Mile
Water. This part of the scheme is due to be
completed by November 2021.
11 Sep 2020: To date work that has
taken place on the scheme has included the
earthworks plus a retaining wall in the Six Mile
Water, presumably for the bridge. Work was
paused due to the Covid-19 pandemic but is due
to get underway again at some point in the next
few months. The next phase of work will include
the construction of the roundabout on Doagh Road
plus drainage works. With thanks to the
contractor, Duo Operations Ltd, for info on the
current situation. So it looks likely to me that
the first element of the Western Relief Road to
be completed will be the stretch from the A57 to
Doagh Road, which will be extremely useful as it
will bypass the main street of the town.
12 Jun 2020: At long last more work is
taking place on this long-anticipated scheme.
The roundabout at the very southern end of the
scheme, along with 100 metres of the relief
road, were completed in mid 2018 to service the
"Ollar Valley" development. However, Neptune
Group was granted full planning permission for
the southern section remainder
of the relief road in November 2019 (it must be
a modified plan as permission was granted in
2011) and work now seems to be underway on the
central section, around Doagh Road. Vegetation
clearance work seems to have been carried out in
early 2019 ahead of this work. An aerial view
recently shared on Facebook
suggests that this, too, is intended to serve a
new housing development and doesn't seem to be
the provision of the whole relief road. The
plans do show a roundabout here, so the works
that are underway will likely lead to the
construction of that, plus a stretch of the
relief road on either side. It could be some
years before the whole relief road is built, as
developers tend only to build parts of roads as
they are needed. The photos below were shared by
Alan Robinson. Thanks also to Jay Burbank for
the heads-up that this work was underway.

The completed roundabout on the A57 (which runs
bottom left to top right) as of 2020. It was
completed in mid 2018 along with the first 100
metres of the relief road to serve the Ollar
Valley development. [Google Earth]

View north-east along Doagh Road (towards
Ballyclare) on 5 June 2020 showing a site yard
in place and heavy plant on site. This is to the
the site of a new roundabout which will carry
the relief road from left to right across Doagh
Road here. [Alan Robinson]

Earthworks underway on the future Ballyclare
Relief Road near Doagh Road on 5 June 2020 [Alan
Robinson].

Telephoto shot taken from Doagh Road, Ballyclare
looking south-east towards the existing
roundabout on the A57. The new road will
eventually run from the roundabout shown to the
Doagh Road, though this will require a new
bridge over the Six Mile Water and it does not
look as if the full link will be completed in
this phase of the works. [Alan Robinson]
23 Oct 2016: The Infrastructure Minister
was asked about this scheme in
the Assembly on 19 September. The Neptune
Group acquired the housing development in
question in November 2015 and indicated that
they would start work on the site early in 2017.
The provision of the Ballyclare Western Relief
Road is required for the development, but
presumably will not all be provided at once. In
fact, it could take up to 15 years, the time it
is estimated it will take to built all the
houses involved. The Minister said "There are
a number of locations throughout the North
where local councils stand in a prime position
to play a leading role, following the
devolution of various powers to them in recent
years, such as their capacity for financial
borrowing, to give one example. Certainly,
either on their own or in conjunction with the
Department, and with local developers, there
is the potential to look at this." This
suggests Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council
could yet have a role in this scheme. The
developer does need to pay for the road, but
perhaps the council could provide a loan on
favourable terms to allow it to be built at an
earlier date.
6 Apr 2016: It's been almost four years
since this page was last updated, because the
economic slowdown caused the Ballyclare West
housing project, of which this road is a
component, to be put on the long finger in 2012.
KPL Group, the developer behind it, then went
into administration
in February 2014 shortly after the land had been
sold off. In November 2015 the land was acquired
by Neptune Group who said in a statement
on their web site that "we plan to start work
on the site [which is primarily a housing
development] early next year. We intend to
liaise closely with the local community and
elected representatives in order that the new
proposed link road can be constructed in a
timely fashion". The scheme got a brief
mention in a Written
Answer in the Assembly about six weeks ago
(question AQO 9691/11-16). The DRD Minister
noted that the DRD will "assist this
development where possible", which is all
they can really do since the scheme is
"developer led". A developer led project is one
that exists primarily to service a private
development and must therefore be paid for by
the private developer, albeit built to the
required standard to become DRD property when
finished. All of this does give us some hope
that we might see work on the road resume over
the next few years, but we'll have to wait and
see what Neptune Group decide to do.
20 May 2012: It seems that the decline in the
housing market has now hit this scheme.
According to the Newtownabbey
Today, the scheme is now on hold for
an unknown length of time due to lack of
money. The developer, KPL Group, said that
the scheme is "facing a slight delay due to a
reduction in capital provisions"
although they point out that they have
already invested a considerable sum in
preparatory works, and hence are still
committed to it. It seems as if the scheme
will have to wait until the housing market
picks up again. It is not known how long the
delay will be, but it may be some time,
hence I have moved this scheme back down the
priority list.
25 Feb 2012: I was past the site today and
took a photo looking along the route of the
first phase of this road (see below). It
suggests that at least some preparatory work
has now taken place. Firstly, there is a
distinct mark in the grass of the field that
coincides with the line of the road. This
suggests that either some vegetation
clearance has taken place, or that the line
of the road has been marked out in some
other way. Secondly, it looks as if some
trees have been removed close to where the
road will cross the Six Mile Water
(foreground of pic). I may be clutching at
straws a bit here, but since work is due to
begin around now this could be a sign that
something is finally moving.

Looking north west from the A57
Templepatrick Road/Ballyrobert
Road junction, along the line of the new road
(see map above for guidance). Note the light
coloured area on the side of the hill, and the
apparent tree removal to the right of centre.
Taken on 25 Feb 2012. [Wesley Johnston]
12 Dec 2011: According to Newtownabbey
Today, work on the first phase of this
road is now due to start in February 2012.
We had previously expected work to begin
during the past year, but there has been no
evidence of work and no explanation.
According to the article, the reason for the
delay was "environmental
regulations when several [12] badger setts
were discovered along the proposed
two-mile route". Hopefully we will
see work begin within this timescale.
5 Jun 2011: Work has still not
begun on the road. However I was at the site of
the associated housing development last week and
one of the people working on the site said that
they thought the work on the road would be
beginning "in July". This is not official
information, so could be completely wrong, but
as it's all we have I am sharing it anyway! The
property company has now set up a web site which
devotes
a page to the road (but with no maps)
which it calls the "Westlands Link Road",
although the final say on the road name lies
with Newtownabbey Borough Council.
14 Jan 2011: After much delay,
planning permission for this proposed road and
associated housing development has
finally been granted. It is not clear when
construction on the road will begin, except to
note that (i) KPL seem keen to proceed (ii) work
on the road will begin prior to the bulk of the
housing development. As it is being progressed
by a private developer there are unlikely to be
any announcements when work does begin.
18 Sep 2010: Work had been due
to get underway on the new road in August 2010,
but this did not happen. According to the Newtownabbey
Today, the delay is due to the fact that
the Planning Appeals Commission have delayed the
publication of their report into the inquiry
into the Belfast Metropolitan Area Plan 2015
(BMAP) until at least March 2011. As this road
scheme is part of the BMAP, it is likely to be
affected by this delay. The developer (KPL) has
not commented, so their position is unknown.
June 2010: According to Newtownabbey
Today, work on the houses associated with
this development began in May, on land off
Rashee Road. However, work on the road did not
begin in April 2010 as was anticipated back in
August last year. It has now emerged that
approval for the road cannot be given until the
finalised Belfast Metropolitan Area Plan 2015
(BMAP) has been published. This is presumably
because provision of the link road is included
in the BMAP and is hence part of the plan. The
BMAP *may* be published later in 2010, but no
firm date has been given. The developer (KPL
Group) is saying that work may begin on the road
in "August 2010", but with the dependency on
BMAP this seems very optimistic. The article has
also confirmed that the road will be built in
two stages. The 1km section from Templepatrick
Road to Doagh Road will be built first, with the
extension to Rashee Road following later,
possibly a year or more later.
Photos

The view west along Doagh Road,
Ballyclare. The new road will cross this road
a few hundred metres ahead. Taken in 2003.
[Wesley Johnston]

Looking south, towards
Ballyclare, along Rashee Road from the Cogry
Road junction. The new road will terminate near
where the car is parked. Taken in 2003. [Wesley
Johnston]
Artist's impression of how the
new road and associated housing development
will look. Picture obtained from the Irish
Construction site. [KPL Group]
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