Although this scheme is being implemented by Donegal County Council, it is included on the site as it has a cross-border element that will be constructed within Northern Ireland. In its original form around 2007, the plan was to upgrade the N14 road which connects Letterkenny in county Donegal to Northern Ireland and hence on to Dublin via Strabane. The whole scheme would have been built to 2+2 dual-carriageway standard and be 18km long. At the eastern end it was to include a new bridge to connect Lifford across the border to Strabane and hence join the A5.

In October 2010 the dual-carriageway plan was suspended. However the short Strabane to Lifford link still needs to go ahead due to the proposed upgrade of the A5. A bridge over the River Finn will be required to carry the new road. Donegal County Council call this a "significant structure between 100 and 300 metres in length". Click here for a map of the current proposals.

Progress

9 Nov 2011: The Irish government's decision not to provide £400m for the A5 upgrade until at least 2016 means that this scheme, too, is now on hold. Since it would connect to the upgraded A5, the scheme would serve no purpose without it. Therefore, this scheme is now on the long finger.

8 Oct 2011: It now seems certain that Roads Service and the NRA (in the Republic of Ireland) do indeed plan to press ahead with this scheme at the same time as the main A5 scheme. This was evidenced by the publication of the Direction Order in July 2011. A Direction Order (used in Northern Ireland only) is the legal document that is required to give Roads Service permission to build a new trunk road. It is unclear whether this short link road was included in the A5 Public Inquiry, but since the section inside Northern Ireland is only 79 metres long it would seem wasteful to hold an entirely separate public inquiry for it!

5 June 2011: Further to my previous update, Donegal County Council have now put a PDF of their proposals online. This shows that the link road will consist of a fairly substantial eight span bridge, three of which appear to be arch spans with five beam spans. Most of the bridge traverses the flood plain, as the River Finn itself is not massive. The PDF gives the dates of the environmental impact statement and compulsory purchase order (similar to a Northern Ireland vesting order) as "summer 2011" with construction to take place "2012 onwards". This way this latter date is phrased seems to imply that it will be built concurrently with the construction of the A5 dual-carriageway in Northern Ireland which is also to be built from "2012 onwards". With thanks to Cormac Ó Murchú.

14 May 2011: Donegal County Council have now held a public exhibition of their preferred route (held mid April until 8 May 2011). Unfortunately I can't seem to locate any copies of the proposals online. The official web site for the scheme on the Donegal CoCo web site also says that "the Environmental Impact Statement/ Environmental Statement and Compulsory Purchase Order are expected to be ready for publication by end May 2011." No details of a possible construction date are mentioned.

31 Oct 2010: The financial chaos in the Republic of Ireland has resulted in the plan to upgrade the N14 from Strabane to Letterkenny being "suspended" as of two weeks ago. However, Donegal County Council have now split the Strabane-Lifford link road from this larger scheme and are taking it forward independently because this section is required to link into the proposed A5 dual-carriageway from Derry to Aughnacloy which is being part funded by the Republic of Ireland. As of two weeks ago the latest information was that "Roughan & O’Donovan Consulting Engineers have now been appointed to complete the Design and the Environmental Impact Assessment/Environmental Assessment Report Statutory Processess for the project. It is likely that some amendments will be necessary to the design for the N14 Letterkenny to Lifford/Stabane Scheme and the N15 Lifford to Stranorlar scheme to incorporate the layout of the N14/N15 to A5 Link." With thanks to Cormac O Murchú for letting me know about these changes.

23 Mar 2008: Construction of the scheme had been due to get underway in mid 2008. However, according to the Roads Service report to Strabane Borough Council in Autumn 2007, the scheme is now being reviewed by the authorities both North and South. This is because the scheme is due to tie in to the A5 Strabane Bypass. However, as of summer 2007 a plan is being progressed to upgrade the A5 to dual-carriageway and this will affect the design of the Strabane-Lifford link. Therefore construction is likely to be delayed. Donegal Council Council's web site is now giving a start date of "2013", considerably later than previously believed.