The North's regional development minister David Cairns yesterday unveiled a £400 million (€585 million) scheme to upgrade roads throughout Northern Ireland including the A1 Belfast to Dublin road.
On the key A1 route to the Border, Mr Cairns has proposed a new £45 million link between the M1 and the outskirts of Hillsborough to take through traffic past Sprucefield, at Lisburn and four additional flyover junctions on the existing dual carriageway between Hillsborough and Loughbrickland.
This is in addition to the four flyover junctions already planned. This work will further free up the Northern side of the Belfast to Dublin road as it will turn this section of the route into an expressway with no movements across the central reserve and a continuous central safety barrier.
The new roads package is on top of an already extensive £1 billion roads programme which, in the next few years, will see the completion of schemes like the M1/Westlink upgrade in Belfast and the extension and upgrading of the dual carriageway to the Border.
A further £50 million is earmarked to provide a flyover junction over York Street on the Westlink. Major work is already under way on the Westlink, creating traffic disruption. However, when these projects are completed it may be possible that instead of traffic lights at key junctions on the Westlink, as at present, traffic will have a clear run-through from the M1 on to the M2.
The proposals also include a £130 million upgrade of the route from Derry to Strabane and on to Victoria Bridge and bypasses of Enniskillen in Co Fermanagh, Fivemiletown in Co Tyrone and Ballykelly in Co Derry, plus a £10 million package of improvements for the A32 between Omagh and Enniskillen. There will also be upgrading of the A26 from Coleraine to Ballymoney and the A3 from Portadown to Richhill.
It is planned that all works will be completed by 2015. Mr Cairns, however, stressed that these were draft proposals which he was putting out for consultation and that not all would be implemented. He added that the £1.4 billion investment in the roads network was the highest in real terms for over 30 years.
"Even with this level of funding, however, choices have had to be made, as not every scheme can be funded. While we believe that this package makes best use of the funds available, the consultation I am announcing will afford all those interested an opportunity to comment on our proposals. These comments will be considered before I finalise the programme this autumn."
