NorthWest Motorway

Having read other comments on the relatively new proposal of a new road from Dublin to the North West I thought I would add my opinion to the topic.

I had this correspondence from the Roads Service NI last summer.

Thank you for your attached e-mail of 4 August 2006.

The route to which you refer proposes a parallel motorway from Derry to Ballygawley (A5) to Armagh to Newry (A28). Unfortunately the traffic figures on this route (approximately 13,000 and 9,000 vehicles AADT respectively) do not merit the construction of a motorway, as a viable business case is not achievable, even based on traffic growth over the next 30 years.

Construction of a motorway on this route would not only be expensive, but would also require many years of planning and consultation with the local people who would be affected. The current strategy most recently published in a Public Consultation document on 31 July 2006 www.drdni.gov.uk will provide significant improvements to the A5, which is one of Northern Ireland's 5 Key Transport Corridors.

For example, in our current Strategic Road Improvement Programme we have the A5 Omagh Throughpass (£10m) and the A5/N14 Strabane-Lifford Link (£3m). In Annex B of the Public Consultation document, Roads Service is proposing £130m of improvements on the A5 between Londonderry and Victoria Bridge, including bypasses of New Buildings, Magheramason, Strabane and Sion Mills.

As you will see in the Public Consultation document, it is important to add that Roads Service has significant plans to upgrade the A6 route from Derry to Belfast. For example, £250m is being invested in upgrading 30km of dual carriageway from Derry to Dungiven, and a further £70m of investment for the 14km section of the A6 from Castledawson to Randalstown. When you combine these improvements with the upgrading proposals of the A1 route from Belfast to the Border, south of Newry, then I hope you will appreciate that significant investment is being provided on the road from Derry to Newry also.

I hope this information is helpful.

For your information, the consultation period on the proposed Expanded Strategic Road Improvement Programme began on 31 July 2006 for a 9 week period.

It is clear that this road project is only the idea of politicians at the moment but I think that the idea is supported by every political party on both sides of the border.

The republics National Development Plan on roads, although considerably behind the original proposed dates will be largely completed by 2010, they will even have completed a motorway to Waterford, a region with less people than the North West.

When Gregory Campbell DUP was asked about this project on Questions and Answers (Irish current affairs TV programme) on 26/03/07 he did not knock it but did say that any development should not leave out the east of Northern Ireland.

I see roads as a means to economical development and not the other way round. I think this road will and should happen to at least HQDC.

What I see as most interesting over the next couple of years is the route selection process, whether it is an extension of the M3 (North of Kells), upgrading the N2/A5 or a spur off the M1 at Newry through Armagh or at the Foyle, if it follows the Donegal or Tyrone/Derry side of the river?