text:
Mar 2005 - Pilot study
to select route from Castledawson to
Derry announced.
Dec 2005 - Funding
announced to build section from Dungiven
to Derry.
Feb 2007 -
Preliminary route corridor selected.
May 2008 - Five route
options published.
6 May 2009 -
Preferred route announced.
14 Dec 2011 - Draft
legal documents published.
Jan 2012 - Public exhibitions.
24 Sep 2012 to 2 Oct
2012 - Public Inquiry held.
ca End Mar 2013 -
Inspector submitted Public Inquiry
24 Feb 2016 -
Departmental Statement published.
21 Feb 2017 -
Construction tender released.
15 Aug 2017 - Vesting
Order "made".
28 Mar 2018 - Contract awarded for
Dungiven to Drumahoe section (phase 1).
(changed from
"after 2015" as of Jan 2011, and
"early 2013" as of Jul 2010).
26 Sep 2018 -
Sod-cutting ceremony
Spring 2022 - Anticipated completion
£390-420m (as of Nov
2014) for whole scheme
(of which £220m for
phase 1, Dungiven to Drumahoe) as of Mar
(Changed from
£230-255m for phase 1 as of Nov 2014;
£350-390m as of Mar 2011; £320-390m as
of Dec 2009; £320m as of Dec 2008 £300m
as of Jun 2008 and £250 million as of
area map.
web site on scheme
web site on scheme - very detailed
information and reports.
Click here to jump
straight down to updates for this scheme.
This major project
was first announced on 13 December 2005 by the
Northern Ireland Secretary of State Peter Hain
as part of a larger investment package for the
city of Derry. It will see a dual-carriageway
bypass of Dungiven town and dualling of the
existing A6 from there to the A2 on the
north-eastern periphery of Derry city. The road
will be build to a high quality with two lanes
each way, no breaks in the central barrier and
fully grade separated junctions (ie flyovers).
Plans announced in 2004 for a single-carriageway
bypass of Dungiven at a cost of £11.1m have been
subsumed by this much larger scheme, although
the preliminary work done will still apply. The
map below shows the section of the A6 affected
by this upgrade which finally got underway in
spring 2018:
chosen route closely follows the existing A6,
but generally off to one side apart from an
onlien section around Burntollet. At the Derry
end it heads inland and bypasses Drumahoe well
to the north, terminating on the A2 at Caw. At
the eastern end it bypasses Dungiven to the
south. The most recent plan was published in
February 2016 and is accessible
Strip Junction Map
This is a strip map of the design that was
published in May 2009, and is still correct as
of the updated design published in February
2016. Note that the design may change between
this map and construction due to the evolution
of the design, and the public inquiry.
Begins on
A2 dual-carriageway, Derry
2+2 lanes
or GRANSHA
A2 Clooney
(into Derry)
(to Limavady)
5.3 km
/ 3.3 miles - 2+2 lanes
(existing A6)
(into Derry).
2.0 km
/ 1.2 miles - 2+2 lanes
Westbound access
Ardmore Road
B74 Glenshane
(Claudy west)
2.5 km / 1.5 miles - 2+2 lanes
B69 Baranailt
Road (into
Road (towards
B74 Feeny
B74 Feeny
Road (into
2.5 km
/ 1.6 miles - 2+2 lanes
(existing A6;
as single-carriageway
A6 towards Belfast
1 lane each way
27 Jan 2020: It is difficult to find out
exactly what is happening on the scheme, so what
follows is really just snippets I have gathered
from here and there. Hopefully the contractor
will put up another update soon, and perhaps
even a new drone video! At the start of the
scheme in Drumahoe work still seems to
be ongoing at Tirbracken Road. This will not
only be the site of the new Lismacarol
roundabout, but it will also be the site of a
new park-and-ride facility. Dee Logue posted a
couple of pictures
of the site last week, which show earthworks
underway to allow the existing A6 to be
realigned to meet the new roundabout, plus other
adjacent works. Piling work also seems to be
well underway for the abutments of the new
bridge at Burntollet, with the climbing
lanes on the approach also closed. It will be
interesting to see how the temporary traffic
management will work here since the new bridge
is to occupy the site of the current bridge, but
about one metre higher. Clearly the old bridge
can't be taken out of use until there is an
alternative for traffic. Perhaps the new bridge
will be built in two halves, with traffic
switched to one half and the old bridge then
demolished. We shall have to wait and see. A
number of large bridge beams were seen being
transported towards Drumahoe during January, but
it's not clear which bridge they were intended
for. Closer to Claudy, at the site of the Baranailt
Road grade-separated junction the two
remaining houses that lay on the route of the
future dual-carriageway have finally been
demolished (these are visible in pic 4 in the
update for 20 Nov 2019 below). Finally, there is
more evidence of work east of Claudy around Gortilea
Road and Ballyhanedin Road. Both
roads are to be bridged over the future
dual-carriageway, and construction work is well
underway on both, with Gortilea Road looking
like it will be ready for beams before long.
According to Paul McCloskey earthworks on the
future dual-carriageway itself have intensified
along this stretch since the New Year. As I
said, hopefully we'll get an update soon from
the contractor, but in the meantime your best
bet is to follow the man-on-the-ground, Paul
McCloskey, who is keeping us all updated!
20 Dec 2019: As the winter sets in,
work on the scheme now seems to be very focused
around construction of structures (bridges and
underpasses) of which there are 22 on the
scheme. The contractor recently put up an update
their web site here, which lists all the
structures that work is taking place on, plus a
number of interesting photos at the bottom of
their page. The unstoppable Paul McCloskey,
meanwhile, has also been putting up pictures.
You can see his images taken recently at the
Dungiven end of the scheme here,
and here.
Finally, Edward Durey of
www.derrycityparamotoring.co.uk has put up a
wonderful aerial video that he took of the
western half of the scheme at the start of
December. What follows is a brief commentary on
this video, which begins at Drumahoe and works
east almost as far as Claudy. The first minute
is just Eddy taking off, so we begin at 1:09.
1:09 - The terminus of the scheme at Drumahoe.
This is the site of the future Lismacarol
roundabout on Tirbraken Road, which finally
re-opened to traffic this week after a four week
closure. The foundations of the eastern arm of
the roundabout can just be seen to the left of
the red fencing.
1:53 - With the road in a cutting, this is
McCay's accommodation overbridge. The bridge
piers appear completed, and the beams will be
lifted into place during January.
2:25 - Trees cleared for the bridge over Liberty
Glen, the largest structure on the whole scheme.
Work on this bridge has not yet begun.
2:48 - Footprint of the new road very evident to
the left of the existing road, which will remain
in place here for local access.
3:05 - Approaching the site of the future
Tamnaherin Road overbridge. The existing A6 has
been diverted onto a temporary loop around the
site to allow construction of the bridge and
approach embankments. From here to Claudy the
new road will subsume the existing A6.
3:28 - Passing Ervey Road. About 1km of new road
is being built here to extend Ervey Road as far
as the Tamnaherin Road junction, as it will no
longer be able to join the A6 directly (as it
currently does just ahead).
3:40 - New accommodation lane under construction
to left of the current road.
4:00 - Approaching Burntollet, the most
constricted point on the whole scheme, with
woodland on either side plus the protected River
4:21 - Burntollet bridge, with demolition of the
18th century stone bridge completed. The 20th
century concrete bridge will also be demolished
in due course to be replaced by a new structure.
On the right, but not that visible, piling work
is underway for the new bridge to carry Ardmore
Road over the Faughan river.
4:45 - New road will run slightly to the left of
the current alignment here. Excavation of the
necessary cutting is not yet complete, but the
land is fenced off.
5:47 - At Cumber Presbyterian Church the line of
the road has to move to the right to avoid the
historic structure, but the proximity of the
river means a large embankment will be needed on
the right here.
6:10 - Approaching the future Killaloo
grade-separated junction, providing access to
Claudy to/from the west. The new road follows
the line of the existing, 20th century A6
(visible on the left), but on the right you can
see the perfectly straight 18th century road
that preceded it.
6:17 - Excavation on the bridge that will carry
Killaloo Road over the new A6 here is completed,
and construction of the bridge piers has begun.
7:10 - Long stretch of earthworks, and in the
area just ahead it passes through quite boggy
ground. This type of excavation sometimes needs
cut-and-replace, where soft material is removed
and replaced with higher-quality material,
usually from elsewhere on the site.
7:51 - Eddy turns back at this point, just
before reaching the Claudy junction.
Work is also underway on the rest of the
scheme, after the video ends. Some
highlights are:
Happy Christmas!
20 Nov 2019: We are now a third of the
way through constuction of this scheme, which is
due to be completed in spring 2022. We are now
seeing increasing evidence of the new road
itself, as opposed to just earthworks. In this
update I am sharing four great photos taken by AerialVisionNI
and once again put up here with their permission
- thank you. (You can see higher-res versions of
the images here.)
I'll leave the details to the captions of the
photos. Ten days ago the contractor had to fully
close the A6 at Drumahoe in order to lay a
culvert beneath the road. This was not on the
route of the dual-carriageway itself, but at a
point where the existing road is to be realigned
to meet the terminal roundabout at Lismacarol.
The culvert had to be laid at a depth of several
metres, meaning that the large plant equipment
needed the full width of the road. Although it
caused some disruption, the contractor
tells us that it went very well, and was
completed ahead of schedule, on the Sunday
evening, despite heavy rain. Google Earth
imagery has also been updated, so you can now
see the scheme underway on the stretch from
Claudy to Dungiven. The imagery is dated 21
September 2019. Anyway, here are the photos,
working from east to west:
14 Oct 2019: As the nights start to draw
in, work on this scheme passed its first
anniversary at the end of September. A number of
road closures are underway - including Gulf
Road and part of Foreglen Road at Killaloo,
just west of Claudy. A new grade-separated
junction is being built here, and Gulf Road lies
beneath it, so it needs to be closed to allow
the construction of a new bridge to carry Gulf
Road over the new dual-carriageway. Meanwhile, a
few miles to the east, a temporary
new link road has
opened at Baranailt Road. Because this is
a relatively busy road (it is the main access
onto the A6 from Claudy) it needs to remain
open, despite a new junction being built on top
of it. So the temporary new
link road has been built to bypass the site in
the interim. It will presumably be
removed in due course. Meanwhile,
just west of Dungiven, Killunaght
Road and Derrychrier
Road have both now been closed and will
remain so until next summer. At this point the
new road runs parallel to, and at a lower
elevation than, the current road. Both local
roads will be bridged over the new road, but as
these bridge both lie on the route of the
current roads they have to be closed to allow
the bridges to be built. They will be reopened
once completed. Finally, between Burntollet and
Drumahoe Mavis
Road is about to be closed, and will
remain so for two years. Mavis Road is a very
minor road, and is largely unaffected by the new
road (it lies off to one side), but is of
interest because a new link road is to be built
at its south end to connect Ervey Road to the
new Tamnaherin Road grade-separated junction. So
the closure is presumably to allow work on the
new link road to progress. In summary, we're now
in the central phase of the project where many
of the earthworks have been completed or
advanced and work is increasingly focusing on
construction of bridges and associated link
roads. This is likely to remain the dominant
activity for the next year. The new road is due
to open fully by spring 2022, i.e. two and a
half years from now.
11 Sep 2019: The scheme is approaching
its first anniversary, with two-and-a-half years
to go and activity is now evident along much of
the length of the scheme. I am sharing four
photographs below, which were all taken within
the past week. But in addition, the contractor
has put up a 45 minute aerial
video of the entire scheme that was taken
on 28 August, i.e. two weeks ago. As I did for
the last video three months ago I have provided
a brief commentary on the video below,
for those who would find it useful. You may wish
to open the video in a separate window and keep
the commentary open beside it. Times refer to
the points in the video where various things can
be seen, in minutes and seconds. The first three
photos below are aerial done shots taken by AerialVisionNI
and put up here with their permission - thank
you. You can see the original (higher-res)
versions here.
The final one was provided with thanks from Dee
Logue. He shared other photos of the same
location here
and here.
The contractor also put up an update in August
on their site here,
which includes further information and an
interesting selection of photographs.
Commentary on this
aerial video, which starts at Dungiven
and ends at Drumahoe:
0:14 Starting at the eastern side of Dungiven,
this is the site of the future Magherabuoy
roundabout where the scheme will begin with a
bypass around the town. Although the land here
was cleared some months ago, earthworks have now
begun to construct the road bed.
0:53 Dungiven Priory visible on the left. Access
will be preserved by a new bridge to be built
over the new road here.
1:30 Site of future bridge over the River Roe.
The road seems very wide here because it has to
be built up on an embankment on either side of
the river, adding to the width needed.
2:00 Approaching Teeavan Road and Magheramore
Road. There will eventually be a cutting here,
and a bridge to carry Magheramore Road over it,
but excavation has not yet begun.
2:40 Temporary bailey bridge over river.
4:30 Site of future Feeny Road grade-separated
junction. The black, curvey lane on the left is
a future agricultural accommodation laneway.
6:00 Temporary Derrychrier bailey bridge.
7:30 New embankment for the future A6
approaching Derrychrier Road, which will
eventually go under the new road.
9:50 Cutting to carry future A6 beneath
Killunaugh Road under construction (and partly
flooded after rain).
11:30 Approaching Ovil Hill cutting, the largest
cutting on the entire scheme where excavation
has been underway for almost a year.
12:35 Passing Foreglen GAA ground.
13:20 Structure to carry Altagarran Road beneath
the new A6 now complete and being backfilled to
create the embankments on either side,
especially visible beyond.
14:45 Passing Crock-na-brock Road.
16:10 Passing along a long, shallow cutting with
a new accommodation laneway being built to the
17:40 Land to the left is not part of the
scheme, so the contractor must have an
arrangement with a landowner to use this field
for storing spoil.
18:30 Road approaches existing A6 and runs
alongside it for the next few kilometres at a
lower elevation.
19:45 Approaching site of bridge that will carry
Ballyhanedin Road over the new A6. Beyond this
point the road will run to the left of the
existing road, but earthworks have not yet
21:00 Long stretch with earthworks yet to begin.
22:30 Works underway to construct the bridge
that will carry Gortilea Road over the new road.
The new road is still running parallel to the
existing road at this point.
23:30 Resumption of earthworks.
26:20 Point where the new road will joint he
existing A6. From here to near Drumahoe it will
be an online upgrade. New route for the existing
bit of the A6 that we've already passed is
visible curving to the right ahead.
27:00 Future site of Claudy grade-separated
junction. Traffic has been diverted to the right
to facilitate construction of a new bridge that
will carry the future dual-carriageway over the
local road network here.
29:00 Excavation of soft material.
29:50 Passing contractor's site HQ (hello!) with
road foundations well underway on the left.
30:50 Site of future Killaloo grade-separated
junction. Approach embankment to the flyover
over the new road is taking shape on the left.
33:50 Significant cutting will be made into the
hill to the right of the A6 here, to accommodate
the wider road. Site clearance already carried
35:40 Site of the Burntollet bridges. The "old"
bridge, which probably dated to the 18th century
(but not listed), was demolished during August.
The "new" bridge, which dates to the 1950s, will
soon be demolished too to make way for a much
larger bridge. Environmental constraints
including rivers and protected woodland make
this the most confined part of the whole scheme.
36:20 Site of future cutting in hillside with
land already cleared.
37:00 New local road (extension of Ervey Road)
under construction on right to provide a link to
Tamnaherin Road (ahead) for local traffic.
39:00 Site of future Tamnaherin grade-separated
junction, with not much earthworks yet evident.
At this point the new road swings offline again
from the existing A6 (to the right) and is
offline until its terminus at Drumahoe.
41:10 Site of future bridge over Liberty Glen,
the longest bridge on the whole scheme.
42:05 Foundations in place for future
accommodation overbridge, crossing cutting.
43:00 Terminus of scheme at Tirbracken Road in
Drumahoe. The two carriageways diverge and will
join a new roundabout. Works beyond Tirbracken
Road ahead are for a new park-and-ride.
26 Jul 2019: The contractor has been
enjoying some wonderful weather in recent weeks
and taking full advantage of it. This update is
to bring you some wonderful aerial done shots
taken by AerialVisionNI
and put up here with their permission. I've also
included a couple of extracts from the design
drawings to help you make sense of these views,
which were taken at three different locations.
You can find the original (higher-res) images here
and here,
including a couple I haven't put up here. Thank
you to AerialVisionNI!
13 Jun 2019: The contractor has put up a
magnificent drone
video, over 40 minutes long, which takes
the viewer along the entire length of this 30 km
scheme. While the photos that I shared last
month (below) are interesting, there is nothing
that beats drone footage for getting an overview
of a project. Many thanks to the contractor for
putting up this video – I hope that they put up
similar videos at intervals in the next three
years as the project progresses. I have provided
a brief commentary on the video below,
for those who would find it useful. You may wish
to open the video in a separate window and keep
the commentary open beside it. Times refer to
the points in the video where various things can
be seen, in minutes and seconds.
20 May 2019: Last week I was honoured
to be invited up to the site by the contractor
(Sacyr, Wills Bros and Somague consortium) and
was given a guided tour of the whole length of
the scheme, from Drumahoe to Dungiven. From the
point of view of the road user, there are long
stretches of the scheme where little seems to be
happening other than site clearance. However,
having seen the scheme up close it is clear that
a lot of heavy earthworks and engineering are
happening, but in many cases in places which are
not easily visible from the current road. A lot
of staff were evident all over the scheme, a
good proportion of whom seem to be from the
local area. The biggest single earthwork so far
is the huge cutting through Ovil Hill near
Foreglen. Work here has been progressing for
some months now. One reason it is happening now
is that the contractor is extracting a lot of
good stone from the cut which is being sorted
and sized and stored for use elsewhere on the
scheme. Re-using rock in this way means that
very little stone will have to be brought in
from quarries, thus reducing the overall
environmental impact of the scheme. Earthworks
are also underway at various points on the
scheme including at the Drumahoe end where the
embankments for the off- and on-slips to the
terminal Lismacarol Roundabout are now in place.
On the offline stretch from Claudy to Dungiven
earthworks are underway at various points,
including cut-and-fill operations (where soft or
low-quality material is dug out and replaced
with higher-quality material suitable for
building on), and further cuttings and
embankments. Some concrete structures are also
underway, including a box structure that will
take Altagarron Road beneath the new
dual-carriageway and a new agricultural
underpass near Claudy. Further site clearance
work has also been taking place on what will be
the Dungiven Bypass. We are still three years
away from anticipated completion, but so far a
lot of work has taken place on what is the
largest single road project ever undertaken in
Northern Ireland. Thank you to the contractor
for a most enjoyable visit. I include a number
of photographs below.
Pic 1: At the start of
the scheme at Drumahoe, the dual-carriageway
will commence at a Lismacarol Roundabout to be
located on Tirbracken Road. The future plan is
to extend the new road over the roundabout
towards Maydown, but for now the two
carriageways are going to terminate on the
future sliproads. This is the view towards the
site of the future roundabout on Tirbacken Road
from what will be the eastbound onslip. The
future westbound offslip will be located near
the bank visible on the extreme left. The flat
area in between will be left clear for the
future extension of the dual-carriageway. 15 May
2019 [Wesley Johnston]
Pic 2: This is the view south east along
the route of the future road near The Cross
(Belfray Inn area) on 15 May 2019. The road runs
offline here, with the existing A6 on the right
to remain in-situ for local access. The large
depression ahead of the camera is Liberty Glen,
which will eventually be spanned by a large
(approx 200 metre long) bridge. [Wesley
Pic 3: This is the view of Liberty Glen
looking north-east from the existing A6 on 15
May 2019. Pic 2 was taken from the large mound
visible on the extreme left. The new
dual-carriageway will cross the glen on a new
bridge across the centre of the shot here.
[Wesley Johnston]
Pic 4: Moving to Burntollet, one of the
most constricted parts of the whole scheme, this
is the existing A6 bridge as seen on 15 May
2019. This bridge will be demolished, along with
the adjacent older bridge, and replaced with a
much wider structure which will also be about
three metres higher than the current bridge.
When this bridge was built in the mid 20th
century, the river beneath was straightened and
lined with concrete walls. This is no longer
regarded as environmentally good practice, so
the new bridge will also involve removing all
the concrete visible here and restoring a more
natural earth riverbank along with a new
pedestrian path. [Wesley Johnston]
Pic 5: Moving much further east, to the
area just east of Claudy, this is a new
agricultural underpass being built to take a
farm lane beneath the new dual-carriageway. At
this point the new road will run adjacent to the
existing road (which in this shot runs
left-right beyond the trees), which will remain
in-situ. 15 May 2019 [Wesley Johnston]
Pic 6: Slightly further east than pic 5,
this is the view east along the route of the new
road as seen from Ballyhanedin Road on 15 May
2019. The topsoil has been cleared here and
earthworks are underway. The current A6, on the
left, will remain in place for local traffic
while the new road will run at a lower elevation
beside it. Ballyhanedin Road will eventually be
carried over the new road on a bridge to be
sited just ahead. [Wesley Johnston]
Pic 7: Near the village of Foreglen,
Altagarron Road is going to remain in place, but
is currently closed to allow the construction of
this new box structure, which is big enough to
carry two double-decker buses. The future
dual-carriageway will run over the top of this
structure at an oblique angle while Altagarron
Road will pass through it. This view is looking
south-west. 15 May 2019 [Wesley Johnston]
Pic 8: Just east of Foreglen the
dual-carriageway passes through Ovil Hill which
requires an enormous cutting, work on which is
now well underway. This view shows one of
several excavators busy removing rocks which
have been loosened by explosives. Although this
is a very large cutting, it is yielding an
enormous quantity of good quality rock which is
going to be sorted and used elsewhere on the
scheme. This means that very little rock needs
to be imported from quarries elsewhere, greatly
reducing the overall environmental impact of the
scheme. 15 May 2019 [Wesley Johnston]
Pic 9: Another view of the Ovil Hill
cutting taking shape on 15 May 2019, looking
west. The material on the right is rock that has
been removed from the cutting and has been
sorted by size and is now being stored to await
use elsewhere on the project. If you drive
through here in three years time, reflect on the
effort that it has taken to create this cutting!
[Wesley Johnston]
Pic 10: Moving now to the Dungiven Bypass
element of the scheme, this is the view east
from near Feeny Road on 15 May 2019. There will
be a grade-separated junction on Feeny Road
giving access to Dungiven from the west. The
road will travel in a shallow cutting here,
which has already been excavated. Note the
temporary drainage channel on the left. These
channels are equipped with structures designed
to filter out silt so that it doesn't make its
way into local watercourses during construction.
[Wesley Johnston]
Pic 11: This final view shows the view
east from Teeavan Road, Dungiven, on 15 May
2019. The earthworks are well underway here. The
new road will be carried over the river in the
depression just ahead on a bridge, before
entering a cutting beyond which will carry the
road to its terminus at a new roundabout on the
current A6 just east of Dungiven (Magherabuoy
roundabout). [Wesley Johnston]
24 Mar 2019: In the last update I
commented on the difficulty of getting info on
this scheme, but since my previous update the
contractor has updated
their web site. The contractor confirms
that site clearance has now been completed on
the entire scheme except for an area in an area
in Brackfield and Burntollet. Fencing works have
also taken place in the past few weeks on
between Tamnaherin and Gortilea; between
Ballyhaedin and Munreery; from Feeny Road to
Dungiven and near Claudy towards Burntollet.
Utility diversions along the route are partially
completed with some still to be carried out.
Earthworks are underway at Drumahoe, Foreglen,
Munreery and Derrychrier and these are for three
public road bridges (Gortilea overbridge,
Ballyhanedin overbridge and Altagarron
underbridge) and one accommodation bridge
underbridge. By the end of March temporary
bridges over the Owenbeg and Owenrigh Rivers
will be completed, presumably to provide site
access for the contractor. Finally, access
tracks are being built between Killunaght and
Ovil Hill and Feeny towards Dungiven and
Munreery. Again these are probably for the
contractor to gain access to the site. The
update also contains a video – I can't get it to
play on my computer, but have a look as it might
work on yours!
6 Mar 2019: Work has been undereay on
this scheme now for six months, but it is
extremely difficult to get information on
progress. The contractor has a web site at https://a6d2d.com
but it is not being updated frequently or in any
useful detail, with the last construction update
being posted almost three months ago. This
requires us to instead depend on the
observations of local people on Twitter, which
are proving much more useful, especially Paul
McCloskey whose pictures I include below
with his permission. As far as I can ascertain,
work seems to be taking place at Drumahoe
park-and-ride site; on a major cutting south of
of Foreglen and on the Dungiven Bypass section,
shown in the photos below. Work also seems to be
taking place at various points along the online
stretch at the Derry end of the scheme, between
Claudy and Tamnaherin Road past Burntollet. The
whole scheme is due to be completed three years
from now, in spring 2022.
16 Jan 2019: Work is underway again
after the Christmas break. According to the contractor,
the work before Christmas focused on fencing
along the route of the road and on the necessary
environmental surveys along the route. This
means that site clearance works have not yet
commenced on much of the route. Works carried
out before Christmas also included culverts at
Foreglen and Drumahoe, and the installation of
temporary bailey bridges over the Owenbeg and
Owenrigh rivers to faciliate construction
traffic. More significant earthworks are
underway at Foreglen, and these can be seen in this YouTube video
posted by the contractor three weeks ago. It
shows works commencing on the route of the new
road above Foreglen GAA club (visible at 1:10).
The strip of gravel seen here is on the route of
the new dual-carriageway. However, its narrow
width suggests that at this stage this gravel is
intended to faciliate the movement of
construction traffic, rather than being the
foundation of the future road. At 1:30 the
camera swings round to show diggers working at
an excavation. This is the beginning of a much
larger cutting that needs to be made in the
hillside here. The contractor is starting
earthworks at this point and intends to work
westwards, ie towards Claudy. With work having
now been underway for about four months here's
hoping that we see further movement on the
ground before too long.
11 Nov 2018: Slowly but surely work
appears to be progressing on this scheme and
utility diversions (relocating pipes, cables
etc) and earthworks have now started. Earthworks
appear to be underway at both Foreglen, around
half way along the road, and at the western
terminus of the scheme at Tirbracken Road in
Drumahoe. The works at Foreglen have required
the closure of two local road (Crock na Brock
Road and Altagarron Road) because a bridge is
due to be constructed at that location. The
material at the location (peat) is too soft for
a bridge, so these initial works involve
removing the soft material and the two local
roads cross over the site and will be closed for
about six months. At the Dungiven end, the
contractor has constucted a temporary diversion
for the B74 Feeny Road in the locality of the
future Dungiven West grade-separated junction.
This is presumably to allow the junction to be
constructed on the site of the current road. According to
the contractor, the next two weeks will
see geotechnical works taking place at various
points along the western part of the scheme
which is to be an online upgrade of the current
road. Geotechnical works are essentially to
determine the exact nature of the material that
lies under the ground and informs detailed
design decisions. With thanks to Paul McCloskey
for information on the scheme.
6 Oct 2018: The official 'sod-cutting'
ceremony took
place on the scheme on 26 September (photo
1 below). There is still not much to see on the
scheme with the exception of an area around
Foreglen where substantial earthworks now appear
to be underway (photo 2 below). Motorists are
likely to see work progressively ramping up all
along the 25 km route over the autumn and winter
months, with the initial focus probably being on
earthworks (cuttings and embankments) and
construction of new culverts for watercourses.
Work on the Dungiven Bypass itself will
apparently be phased later in the schedule, so
may not begin straight away. Nevertheless, a
site yard also seems to have been established at
Magheramore Road just outside Dungiven. With
thanks to Paul McCloskey for information on
progress and photos.
Photo 1: Causeway Coast and Glens Mayor
Brenda Chivers, Northern Divisional Roads
Manager David Porter and Derry City and Strabane
Deputy Mayor Derek Hussey cut the first sod on
construction of the A6 Dungiven to Drumahoe
Photo 2: Earthworks underway at
Foreglen on 28 Sep 2018. [Paul McCloskey]
18 Sep 2018: Earthworks didn't seem to
start in August as the grapevine had suggested,
but road users need not be concerned - I now
understand that there is to be a sod-cutting
ceremony within the next week or so (possibly
26th September). Since the contract was awarded
six months ago detailed design work has been
taking place. This is a substantial piece of
work, involving site surveys all along the
scheme to determine things like the exact depth
to bedrock, earth composition etc. In addition,
further environmental surveys have been taking
place. Fencing off the land that has been vested
for the scheme is a huge task - the scheme is 30
km long - and as a consequence the process of
fencing is going to take until April 2019 to
complete. A public consultation (by the
contractor, not DFI Roads) took place at the end
of June to inform landowners about things like
phasing. You can see
the panels here. While this also suggested
that work would begin in August, it states that
"sections" of the new road would be open by
Autumn 2021, with overall completion in Spring
2022. I'm told that advanced works have been
taking place near Foreglen and also near the
site of the future Magherabuoy roundabout in
Dungiven. These may be site yards in
development. With thanks to the ever-vigilant Paul
McCloskey for information on the works to
21 Jul 2018: Still nothing much evident
on the ground, but things are moving fairly
quickly towards earthworks finally getting
underway on this scheme. Environmental walkover
work has been taking place since the contractor
was appointed in March, as well as detailed
ground investigation works that will facilitate
the detailed design (questions like "So, exactly
how far below the ground is the bedrock at the
eastern abutment of the bridge?"). The word on
the street is that construction work is going to
begin in mid August with the creation of a site
yard at Feeny Road near Dungiven with
construction due to begin there first. After
that work will take around three to four years
to complete. It's possible that sections of the
road, eg the Dungiven Bypass, may be opened
earlier than this. The contractor has also
followed recent good practice and set up a
dedicated web site for the scheme at http://a6d2d.com.
The contractor has also put up a video
on YouTube that consists of a joint
fly-through/drive-through of the whole road. If
the road seems a bit like a rollercoaster it's
because the virtual car is travelling at about
180mph in order to cover the length of the
scheme in the 6 minutes of the video!
24 Jun 2018: I spoke to an engineer
recently who is working on this scheme and he
confirmed that detailed design work is underway
as we thought. The word on the street is that
construction earthworks may begin during July,
though that has not been confirmed officially.
As I said in the previous update, the first
visible step will be for the contractor to
establish site yards at various points along the
site. Once that happens, the bulldozers will
follow fairly soon. Meanwhile, DFI are holding information
events this week as follows: Wednesday 27
June 12pm-8pm in Owenbeg GAA Club, 471 Foreglen
Road, Dungiven, BT47 7PW; and Thursday 28 June
12pm-8pm in The Belfray Country Inn, 171
Glenshane Road, Derry, BT47 3EN. The events are
mainly intended to allow affected landowners to
find out more about the timetable of works and
when their land, specifically, will be affected.
However, all members of the public are invited
to turn up to find out more about the scheme and
have their questions answered.
3 Apr 2018: The DFI awarded
the construction contract for phase 1 (25.5 km
from Dungiven to Drumahoe, ie the bulk of the
scheme) on 28 March 2018. The contractor is a
consortium of Sacyr, Wills Bros and Somague
(congratulations to them). These companies hail
from Spain, Rep of Ireland and Portugal
respectively and have not been much involved in
road building in Northern Ireland hitherto. The
total cost of phase 1 of the project is given as
£220m (a bit less than the last estimate), which
includes both the construction cost and the cost
of buying the necessary land. The cost may not
include the planning work that has taken place
over the past 13 years since the scheme was
first announced, so this may not represent the
overall cost of the scheme. The status of phase
2, essentially a bypass of the Waterside in
Derry, is less clear since the route is affected
by an illegal landfill whose status is still
unresolved. It would not entirely suprise me if
phase 2 never gets built as it will become much
less of a priority once phase 1 has opened and
may struggle to get to the head of the queue for
future funding. In any case, I've marked the
scheme as "underway" even though proper
construction has not yet begun (work visible to
date is part of a separate site clearance
contract). This is for two reasons. Firstly, it
will take a number of weeks for the contractor
to mobilise their resources and appoint
subcontractors for a scheme of this size, and
secondly the contract includes an element of
final design work which will need done first.
The first signs I would expect to see are the
provision of site yards at various points along
the route, followed by the arrival of heavy
plant equipment and then the commencement of
earthworks. Work is due to take approximately
four years, so we could expect to see completion
during 2022. To clarify - this scheme will see
25.5 km of dual-carriageway built east from
Derry, which compliments the separate stretch of
new dual-carriageway under construction on the
A6 west from Randalstown to Toome. A number of
people have asked what is happening to the gap
that will remain in the middle, ie the long
stretch of single-carriageway from Castledawson
to Dungiven via Glenshane Pass. The answer is
that DFI currently have no plans to dual this
stretch, which is currently the stretch with the
lowest traffic levels on the A6. However, there
is strong symbolism associated with having
continuous dual-carriageways between our two
largest cities, so the pressure to plan an
upgrade of this stretch will likely be
13 Mar 2018: The design-and-build
construction tender has not yet been awarded,
although it is now over a year since it was
advertised. The word on the street is that the
contractor will be appointed within the next few
weeks which could see construction work commence
before the summer, depending on how much final
design work needs to be done (finalising the
design is part of the construction contract).
The Vesting order was "made" on 15 August last
year, and ownership of the land formally
transferred to DFI on 19 September. Meanwhile,
an advance siteworks contract has been underway
since late last year. This primarily involves
vegetation clearance, since trees must be felled
by 1 March, the start of the bird nesting
season. The photos below show examples of this
work. It is most noticeable on the western half
of the scheme, between Claudy and Drumahoe,
perhaps because this section is to be built as
an online upgrade of the existing road. The
eastern part, from Claudy to Dungiven, is
generally offline and hence not as immediately
obvious from the current A6. Archaeological
surveys are also underway and geotechnical and
ecological surveys have been completed. The
scheme will run from Dungiven (including a
bypass of the town) to Drumahoe, with the
"Waterside Bypass" stretch at the Derry end to
be built at an undefined point in the future.
The total cost of this phase will be £230-255m
and will take "up to four years" to complete, so
we could expect to see completion during 2022.
This will therefore be the most expensive single
road scheme ever undertaken in Northern Ireland
(not counting the A5 which has yet to commence),
the previous record holder being the 2010 A1
Newry Bypass at £165m. I am very grateful that
so many people have emailed and tweeted me with
updates on the works along this stretch. There
is a real sense of anticipation - it is clearly
an exciting time for the North West.
5 Sep 2017: With all the publicity being
stolen by the other end of the A6 at Toome and
its legal difficulties, this scheme from Derry
to Dungiven has been quietly advancing to the
point of being not too far off commencement. The
tender has now been out for over 7 months, so I
would expect to see a contractor appointed
before the end of 2017. For clarity, the tender
is for the stretch of the A6 from Drumahoe to
Dungiven only, including the Dungiven
Bypass but NOT including the "Waterside Bypass"
stretch from Drumahoe to the A2 at Gransha. The
reason for this hasn't been widely discussed,
but is likely to be related to the unresolved
illegal dump at Mobuoy Road, which the route of
the new road traverses, and perhaps also the
potential for some money to be freed up in the
short term by the delayed stretch of the A6 west
of Toome. On 15 August 2017 DFI "made"
the Vesting Order for the scheme. The
Vesting Order is the legal document that
transfers ownership of the required land to DFI
(an independent body deciding the compensation
due to landowners). It exists in draft form
throughout the public inquiry stage so that all
those affected can see what is proposed, but the
act of "making" the Vesting Order is the moment
it is triggered and ownership actually changes
hands. Since doing this will immediately
generate a lot of large bills for DFI, they
would not do this until they were confident that
work was going to commence in the short term. So
this suggests that they are going to begin work
soon, perhaps earlier than my previously
predicted date of 2019. The scheme has already
got at least a partial funding allocation -
enough to begin, anyway - and hence commencement
does not depend on the existence of an
Executive. (Incidentally, it is surely not a
coincidence that the Vesting Order was made on
the same day as the A6 Toome legal hearing -
perhaps DFI trying to make sure that there was
at least some good news for the A6 on that
date.) Finally, DFI have released a new
document for the general public detailing
what is being proposed. This includes an image
showing how the "temporary" (!!!) terminus at
Drumahoe will look, and also revealing that it
is to be known as "Lismacarol Roundabout". Lismacarol
could well become the Broadway or Sandyknowes
of the North West, so expect to hear the name
mentioned a lot in traffic reports in the coming
years. At the other end, we now know that the
roundabout east of Dungiven is to be known as
"Magherabuoy Roundabout".
26 Feb 2017: The tender for design and
construction of the bulk of this scheme was
advertised on Tuesday, 21 February. The
tender specifices the stretch from "Dungiven to
Drumahoe" including the Dungiven Bypass, so in
the strip map above that's everything from the
new "Dungiven East" roundabout up to the
"Drumahoe" grade-separated junction, ie only
omitting the bypass of the Waterside and
connection to the A2 at Gransha. The tender
specifices "four" grade-separated junctions
which implies that the Drumahoe junction will be
built as an at-grade roundabout without bridges
and sliproads. If so, that makes sense as in
Northern Ireland we already have far too many
untidy, unfinished junctions without adding yet
another one. The value given is £160m (which
doesn't include design work to date or purchase
of land). That still seems an optimistically low
figure to me, but given that the engineers in
DFI know what they are doing I am willing to
suspend disbelief on this for the time being!
Duration is given as 36 months which I would
consider normal for construction of a road of
this complexity in Northern Ireland. One cannot
ignore the timing of this tender release, which
has come just over a week before an Assembly
election, but it also has to be said that it is
entirely consistent with the recent history of
this scheme which has got a (partial)
budget allocation and has for some time looked
likely to commence on the ground by around
2019. The tender is probably a "design and
build" tender with a split between the two, so
even if a contractor is appointed they will
still have a lot of work to do to complete a
detailed design, and there is no guarantee from
a contractural standpoint that the road will be
built. But this is still probably the closest we
have come to getting a bypass of Dungiven for
several decades. Provided it doesn't get delayed
by a legal challenge from environmentalists, as
has happened on the A5 and the eastern poortion
of the A6, commencement around 2019 and
completion around 2022 seems quite plausible.
8 Feb 2017: In December 2015 the two A6
schemes (this one, plus the Randalstown-Castledawson
scheme) were given a total cash allocation
of £258m for the five years up to 2020/21. Since
we know that the Randalstown scheme is currently
estimated to cost £160m (in August 2016) that
leaves a surplus of £98m that could be used for
this scheme. The total cost of this scheme was
last stated to be £390-420m in 2014. So the
funding allocated up to 2020/21 is enough to
build about a quarter of the scheme. That could
still allow work to begin close to the end of
that time period, on the assumption that further
funds would be made available beyond 2020/21.
However, the Minister has consistently suggested
that the scheme is likely to be broken into
sections and built as money is available, and
that work would begin at the Dungiven end and
work towards Derry. For the past year the
question has been how much of the road could be
built in the first phase. Given that the road
has passed its public inquiry and is now simply
awaiting funding and a contractor, work on the
first phase could begin as soon as those two
items could be put in place. With that in mind,
this week a construciton tender appeared on the
DFI's "future tender" list for a scheme called "A6
Londonderry to Dungiven Dualling (Phase 1,
Drumahoe to Dungiven)" which is for
"25.5km" of dual-carriageway with a total cost
of £150-170m and a tender release date of
February 2017. This suggests that the plan is to
build everything except for the 5.3km "Waterside
bypass" stretch at the Derry end, which
coincidentally is home to the notorious Mobuoy
Road illegal dumping site that the route of the
road traverses. Three points need to be made
about this. Firstly, the timing of the
tender release in the final weeks of the current
Executive is surely not a coincidence. I get the
impression that the current Minister is very
keen to make sure this scheme is progressed as
far as possible before he loses his job prior to
the election. Secondly, the cost of the
scheme is greater than the amount of money
actually approved by the Executive for the A6 up
to 2020/21. When I asked one of the Minister's
advisors about this point (see this
Tweet and replies) he confirmed that
discussions had taken place behind the schenes
about getting further funding, but that nothing
had actually been approved by the Executive. So
I would say IF the election results in a new
Executive being successfully formed, and IF Sinn
Fein are as influential in that one as they are
in the current one, then such funding could well
be forthcoming. But that's something we can't
say until we see the election result and whether
the DUP and Sinn Fein can resolve what looks
like a significant rift. Thirdly, the
tender value of £150-170m seems low to me for
over 25 km of dual-carriageway. Even taking
account of the fact that this is the
construction cost, and does not include design
and land costs, it still seems quite optimistic
to me that that much road could be built for
£170m. The tender represents over 80% of a
scheme whose total cost (including design and
land) was estimated in December 2014 to be
£390-420m. But I imagine the folks at
TransportNI know what they are doing so we shall
have to wait and see. Barring a major change to
the functioning of Stormont, it is quite
plausible that work on this scheme will begin by
the 2019/20 financial year as I have said in
previous updates.
19 Oct 2016: It has been eight months
since I updated this page, mainly because very
little has publicly been said about it. We know
that the Minister has enough money over the next
four years to proceed with some, but not all, of
this scheme (about 30% of the required funds are
available up to 2020/21). He has already said
that he intends to go ahead with the Dungiven
Bypass, probably around 2019, and thereafter to
work west towards Derry as far as possible from
there, but that the extent of this will depend
on how much can be built with the money
available. There is due to be an autumn budget
statement within the next month or so that could
potentially make some more money available for
this scheme, but that is by no means certain. In
a Written
Answer in the Assembly in late September
(AQW 2761/16-21) the Minister said "Work is
underway to determine the extent of the A6
Derry to Dungiven Dualling scheme that can be
delivered within the 2015 Budget Statement
allocations, with priority being given to
commencing construction with a bypass of
Dungiven and progressing westwards towards
Drumahoe" which has been the official line
since Michelle McIlveen was Minister. However,
in a Written
Answer in July (AQW 1095/16-21) the
Minister did note that "in May of this year
[2016] my Department appointed consultants to
assist with the procurement and delivery of
this scheme" which was around the time he
became Minister and seems to represent some
concrete intention. Meanwhile, the Department
for Infrastructure's Business
Plan was published last week, and it gives
some further guidance on when we might know
more. It states a goal to "Develop and agree
the procurement strategy" for this scheme
and sets a target for March 2017. I would take
"procurement strategy" to be offical speak for
"figure out how much money we have, what we can
built with it and when". So on the basis of all
the above I think we might have some more
information at the time of the autumn statement,
and then further clarity by the Spring of next
The only other outstanding issue is the Mobuoy
Road controversy, basically where a huge
amount of illegally dumped waste was found
buried along a short part the route of the road
at the Derry end. This will need dealt with
before work can begin, not least because it was
placed there illegally, but also for practical
reasons, in that the proposed road is in a
cutting at the point in question. Responsibility
ultimately lies with DAERA, not the DfI, but it
is still an issue for DfI as it directly affects
the A6 scheme. In a Written
Answer in July (AQW 394/16-21) the
Minister explained that "Discussions remain
ongoing with the DAERA which is currently
considering the management of the site and
long-term options for remedial measures. My
Department's TransportNI will align any
proposed works with any potential remediation
solutions." He also noted that "I am
content that, should the contamination issue
remain unresolved when the A6 dualling is
being constructed, cost effective measures can
be deployed to remedy the undesirable effects
of the waste."
24 Feb 2016: The DRD has finally
published its Departmental
Statement into this project. After the
road has been planned and designed, it is
usually put to a public inquiry. For this scheme
that happened in September/October 2012. After
that, the Inspector writes a report with
recommendations in it and gives it to the DRD.
This happened around March 2013. The DRD then
study the recommendations and, when they are
happy that they have dealt with every issue,
publish their response - this is the
"Departmental Statement" which was issued today
along with the Inspector's
Report after almost three years. Why is
the Departmental Statement significant? Because,
while the road has been in planning for years,
this is the moment when the decision to proceed
is formally (legally) taken. All that needs to
happen now is that funding is allocated to the
road and a contractor has to be appointed
through a tendering process. This is the
complication - there is currently no formal
funding allocation, though the Executive did
allocate funding for the next five years to the
A6 generally in December. Rather than repeating
myself, I invite you to read the 20 December
update below for the implications of this.
Suffice to say that lack of funding for the
whole scheme means it will probably not happen
at once - the Dungiven Bypass will likely be
constructed first, along with a bit more - and
the wording of the Minister's
press release suggests that the most
likely stretch is a section immediately to the
west of Dungiven, perhaps as far as Claudy (her
wording was "It is envisaged that priority
will be given to construction from Dungiven
towards Londonderry"). But this has yet to
be confirmed. The Inspector's Report largely
accepts the DRD's proposals for the road,
including the route for the Dungiven Bypass
which caused so much controversy at the Inquiry.
This route was also backed up by the DRD's
subsequent research and that of an independent
consultant who then checked the DRD's work. So
the scheme will be going ahead largely as
29 Jan 2016: In the previous updted I
reiterated that there seems to be enough money
to build some, but not all, of this scheme over
the next five years. The assumption is that the
Dungiven Bypass will go ahead, but there seems
to be money to build a bit more than that. So
the question is, what will be built? In a Writtern
Answer in the Assembly this week (AQW
52772/11-16), the Minister said TransportNI "are
currently reviewing the extent of this scheme
which can be built with the funding
allocations in the December 2015 Budget
Once I have received these reports and
considered them in full, I will make a
decision on how the scheme should proceed." So
basically the engineers are working to answer
this very question. There are various
possibilities (eg all of Dungiven-Claudy; or
perhaps Dungiven plus the Waterside "bypass" at
the Derry end) but with so many options I'm not
prepared to put my money on any particular
variation just now! But she finished with the
clearest indication yet that the Dungiven Bypass
will be going ahead after half a century
of waiting, saying "allocations for the
2017/18 – 2020/21 period will allow my
Department to construct elements of the A6
Londonderry to Dungiven dualling scheme, which
includes a bypass of Dungiven". Assuming
it does go ahead, I think we're still perhaps
three years away from construction starting on
the Dungiven Bypass which I estimate could start
in the 2019/20 financial year. Nothing is
certain until the bulldozers move in, but it's
looking promising.
11 Jan 2016: In my post a month ago (9
Dec, below) I expressed frustration with the
time it has taken for the DRD to publish its
response to the Public Inquiry, the report of
which they received almost three years ago. I
also gave some possible reasons. The DRD
Minister was explicitly asked this question in
the Assembly today, and she was adamant
that the delay is the first of the three reasons
I gave, namely ongoing work assessing
alternative routes around Dungiven. It is worth
quoting her at length. She said "One of the
inspector's recommendations was that an
alternative route for the Dungiven bypass be
considered in sufficient detail to allow an
informed comparison to be made between it and
my Department's published route. Transport
NI's project consultant subsequently reviewed
the alternative route, and its findings
endorsed my Department's published route.
However, there was a view that that was not
sufficiently independent and may not have
given the alternative route a fair
consideration, so an independent review of the
alternative route was commissioned by my
Department and has now been completed. Reports
have been prepared outlining the findings of
the review and addressing the other
recommendations arising from the public
inquiry. Once I have received those reports —
I have not as yet — and get the opportunity, I
will consider them in full and make a decision
on how the scheme should proceed after that."
There is no reason not to take this at face
value, though I still think that the other two
reasons I gave are probably also playing a role.
Meanwhile, in the previous update (20
Dec, below) I commented about the implications
of recent funding allocations for this scheme. I
noted that there seemed to be enough money to
build some, but not all, of this scheme over the
next five years and this assessment was
confirmed in the Assembly today when the
Minister said the DRD "are reviewing the
extent of the scheme which can be built with
the funding allocations in the December 2015
Budget statement". It could be that they
decide to progress the Dungiven Bypass alone, as
I suggested below, but it may be that they
decide to build a bit more, for example the
whole bit from the Dungiven Bypass to Claudy. It
sounds as if the Minister will be making an
announcement on this in due course, though
probably not in the immediate future.
20 Dec 2015: Three days ago the Finance
Minister delivered her budget
for the next financial year. This budget
included funding of £21m in the 2016/17
financial year (April to March) for the A6 and
also committed £57m, £60m, £60m and £60m for the
following four years. Now, let's clarify that
there are currently TWO A6 schemes - Derry to
Dungiven, and Randalstown to Castledawson. The
cash allocated is likely to mean the other
A6 scheme, the one to build a dual-carriageway
from Randalstown
to Castledawson, is likely to go ahead
around April 2016. That scheme is estimated to
cost £140m, so the first three years of the
aforementioned cash allocation should cover
this. That means that there is still £120m
allocated to the A6 for the final two years, and
that could only be spent on this A6
scheme. I have blogged
my thoughts on this in more detail here,
but the bottom line is that I think we could see
the A6 Dungiven Bypass detached from the main
scheme and work get underway during the
2019/20 financial year. I need to stress
that this is my own estimate - the DRD have not
said anything about timescales for any of these
schemes. The total estimated cost of the A6
Derry-Dungiven scheme is £420m, and the cash
allocation above is much too low to allow all
this to be built, but the cost of the Dungiven
Bypass portion alone is only £65m, which is LESS
than the £120m allocated for the last two of the
next five years. So it's possible that the
intention is to start the ENTIRE Derry-Dungiven
scheme in 2019, and carry on beyond the five
year period mentioned in the budget with further
funding allocations at that time, or possibly
before. But we shall see. For now, I think
there's a reasonable chance that we're within
three to four years of work beginning on the
Dungiven Bypass.
9 Dec 2015: This scheme is still
deafening in its silence. The Public Inquiry
happened in autumn 2012 and it is now almost three
years since the Inspector submitted his
report to the DRD, and almost two years since
the Minister said that he would be publishing
the DRD's response (the Departmental Statement)
shortly (see update 10 Feb 2014 below). It is
inconceivable that it has taken the DRD three
years to digest the report, so there must be
something else holding it up. Some possibilities
are (a) Consideration of the
"alternative route in the vicinity of Dungiven"
that the DRD keep alluding to when asked what is
happening. Although the Inspector's report has
not been published, it seems to have recommended
consideration of an alternative route. It's
possible, though I think unlikely, that
consideration of this alternative route is
taking this long. (b) That the scheme is
being held up by political and financial
considerations. The Executive has had
conflicting priorities on road building due to
insufficient cash to build everything desired,
and both the A5 and York Street Interchange have
seemed to be higher priorities in the Executive.
The Minister may have been working on the basis
that not publishing the Departmental Statement
effectively parks the project and avoids
questions about timescales getting more awkward.
(c) The Mobuoy Road controversy. In June
2013 a large illegal landfill site was
discovered at
Mobuoy Road, near Londonderry with about
1.5 million tonnes of illegal waste in it. The
site has still
not been dealt with. It impacts on this
scheme since part of the site is
to be purchased by the DRD to build the A6
dual-carriageway (which would be in a cutting
through much of the area in question), but also
for flood control measures and some local road
realignments. The scheme design was developed
prior to the discovery of the site and so it did
not take the illegal landfill into
consideration. Although the DRD are adamant that
the illegal landfill will not affect the
project, it inevitably will because the site
will have to be decontaminated in some shape or
form before the road can be built. It's possible
that delaying this project avoids this becoming
a more toxic (excuse the pun) issue. Finally,
while the DRD Minister did comment back in
September 2014 that he had decided that the
Dungiven Bypass "could" be decoupled from the
rest of the scheme and implemented at an earlier
date, nothing more has been said about this
possibility. As the only town on the entire
Belfast-Derry road that is not bypassed, and one
that is experiencing significant air pollution
and congestion, this really should be well up
the priority list within DRD.
6 Dec 2014: Speaking in the
Assembly three
weeks ago, the Minister was asked about
the scheme. He gave the current position as
follows: "the inspector [at the 2012 public
inquiry] has produced a report containing a
number of recommendations. Those include a
request to consider an alternative route
in the vicinity of Dungiven.That work is
continuing, and, when I am satisfied that all
issues have been appropriately reviewed, a
number of which are complex, I will issue a
departmental statement." In previous
updates I have expressed curiosity that it has
taken so long to respond to the report of the
public inquiry, since TransportNI have now had
it for nearly two years. The comment in the
Assembly implies that the main holdup is that an
alternative route is being considered at
Dungiven. Assessing an alternative route would
generate a lot of work, for example new surveys,
new cost estimation works and possibly new
traffic surveys and modelling. So this could
explain the delay. However, it has to be noted
that the minutes of a TransportNI board meeting
held on 1 October (but just
published) say that the "Departmental
Statement has been submitted to the Minister
for his consideration in advance of an
announcement on the way forward". The
"Departmental Statement" is the formal name
given to TransportNI's response to the report of
the public inquiry, and this suggests that the
statement was actually complete at the start of
October and therefore that the work at
Dungiven is already completed. This made
me suspect that the Minister was merely biding
his time for an appropriate moment to announce
the way forward. There was a debate
in the Northern Ireland Assembly last week
about the Dungiven Bypass, which is one
of the most anticipated components of this
larger scheme. I had therefore expected that the
Minister would use that debate to make some kind
of an announcement. However he did not, instead
stating that the work to assess the alternative
route at Dungiven was "ongoing" and that he
cannot give a timescale for these reasons: "I
cannot pre-empt due process and my decision on
the statutory orders [ie, whether and how he
presses ahead with the scheme]. If that
decision leads to the publication of the
direction order [ie, whether he gives it the
go-ahead], delivery of the scheme will be
subject to final approval of the business case
and be reliant on funding being made available
by the Executive". I still believe that it
is likely that the Dungiven Bypass component of
the scheme will proceed ahead of the remainder.
In his comments three weeks ago in the Assembly,
the Minister gave the costs of the scheme
as follows:
• Dungiven Bypass - £55m-£65m
• Dungiven to Maydown [Derry] - £290-£305m
• Maydown to Caw [upgrade of a short stretch of
the A2 in Derry] - £45-£50m
This gives a total scheme cost of £390-£420m
which is more than the figure of £350-£390m that
has been quoted since 2011. This is very
expensive, and it is unlikely in the current
climate that this kind of money will be
available in the near future.
14 Sep 2014: It has now been a
year-and-a-half since the DRD Minister was given
the inspector's report into the public inquiry
into this scheme which was held in September and
October 2012. In February 2014 he had indicated
that he would make a statement "later this
financial year", which presumably meant
April 2014, but this date also came and went
with no statement. So it has now been 18 months
since he received the report, so it's getting a
bit hard to explain the ongoing absence of any
statement. One possibility is that Northern
Ireland's financial situation is so uncertain,
and with the way forward for the A5 scheme still
not being clear, that the Minister does not want
to rashly commit to a particular course of
action that he may not be able to follow through
with. Another possibility is that the Inquiry
Inspector has identified an issue that is
proving particularly lengthy to resolve. The
Minister was asked about this very issue in
the Assembly on 8 September, when he said
"I am considering a response to [the
Inspector's] recommendations and will issue
the departmental statement in due course when
I am satisfied that all issues, a number of
which are complex, have been appropriately
reviewed." This is very vague. Although he
says some of the outstanding issues are
"complex" this doesn't necessarily imply that
this complexity is the root cause of the delay,
which I tend to suspect is more to do with
financial uncertainty. However, he did give
great hope to the people of Dungiven -
the only non-bypassed town on the whole Belfast
to Derry route - by basically saying that the
Dungiven Bypass will be built ahead of the whole
scheme. When asked if he would consider "decoupling
the bypass at Dungiven from the larger
project" his reply was "I am happy to
confirm that I have taken the decision that
the various components of the entire scheme
can be decoupled. Subject to the finance being
made available and the other issues being
resolved, we can proceed." That is as
close to a commitment as I have seen to date and
is a very positive sign that this is going to be
what happens. So I think we can expect that when
the Minister finally makes his statement, it
will be to say that the scheme is to be broken
into two parts - the Derry to Dungiven stretch,
and the Dungiven Bypass with the latter to
progress first.
10 Apr 2014: Based on the comment the
Minister made in February 2014 (see below) I had
expected us to have the Inspector's Report from
the Public Inquiry and the DRD's Departmental
Statement by now. This latter document is the
one outlining how the DRD will respond to any
recommendations the inspector made and setting
out what they plan to do next. However, in the Assembly
a few days ago the Minister was asked about the
scheme and explained that "we are still
considering the inspector's report arising out
of the public inquiry. The issues are
not yet concluded, and we hope to make
progress on outlining our thoughts on that in
the not-too-distant future". So it seems
we'll have to wait a bit longer. Certainly the
political pressure on the Minister to detach the
Dungiven Bypass element of the scheme and
progress it before the rest of the scheme is
great, and I would not be surprised if this is
what eventually happens in the face of tight
19 Mar 2014: In the Assembly
yesterday, the Minister gave an update on
this scheme. This isn't the official statement
that we're still anticipating in the near future
(see previous update below), but is useful
nonetheless. We have known since June 2012 that
the DRD has prepared a plan to split the scheme
into two bits, which would allow the Dungiven
Bypass stretch to be built ahead of the rest of
the scheme in the evening of full funding being
an issue. In the Assembly today, he added that
it would be possible to split the project into three
by also separating off the upgrade of the short
stretch of the existing A2 at the Derry end of
the scheme (Maydown to Caw roundbout). In
reality, this is a relatively tiny component of
the whole scheme, so doesn't change that much.
The long (approx 25km) stretch from Dungiven to
Maydown roundabout constitutes the bulk of the
scheme. We are still waiting for a more formal
announcement within the next few weeks which
should set out more clearly what the Minister
intends to do next with this scheme.
10 Feb 2014: Ten days ago I commented
that it was now some time since the DRD Minister
had received the report from the Inspector of
the Public Inquiry that sat in September 2012,
and this week the Minister was asked about it
via a Question
for Written Answer. He said "I expect
to make a Departmental Statement on the way
forward later this financial year", which
presumably means by the end of March 2014. A
Departmental Statement is the document usually
released along with the Inspector's Report and
outlines how the DRD will respond to any
recommendations in the Inspector's Report and
sets out a decision on whether or not to
proceed. However, this does not mean
that the construction process would then begin,
as the scheme then has to wait for legal orders
to be made (eg, to buy the necessary land) and
most importantly for funding from the Executive,
which may not be forthcoming at this time since
the Minister has previously indicated that he's
unwilling to progress both the A5 and A6
schemes simultaneously.
31 Jan 2014: In my update on 15 April
2013 (below) I noted that the DRD Minister had
received the report from the Inspector of the
Public Inquiry that sat in September 2012.
Experience of recent years is such that I
anticipated that this would be published before
the end of 2013, but this has not happened.
They're not obliged to release it under any
particular timescale, but I'm just flagging up
the fact that they've now had it for almost ten
months, which is quite a long time. Perhaps
there is a reluctance to publish the report
ahead of a funding announcement as this would
simply draw attention to the fact that this is
yet another scheme serving Derry that hasn't
gone ahead! There is still nothing more on the
suggestion that the Dungiven Bypass scheme might
get split off and implemented at an earlier date
than the rest of the scheme, despite ongoing
local interest in the matter.
1 May 2013: In my previous update I
commented that with the 12-18 month delay to the
A5 project, the "Dungiven Bypass" element of
this scheme must surely be high up the list of
possible alternative schemes to be progressed in
the meantime. In the Assembly
yesterday the Minister seemed favourable
to the idea when that precise question was put
to him. He said "I am pleased to confirm that
the design of the scheme allows for the
Dungiven bypass to be taken forward and
completed as the first phase of the scheme. It
will provide 4·8 kilometres of dual
carriageway bypassing Dungiven to the south at
a total cost in the range of £60 million to
£80 million. The construction of this element
of the scheme would be dependent — and this is
the key thing — on the availability of finance
in subsequent periods." The last sentence
is something he 'has to say' since the Executive
has not yet agreed how the A5 money will be
reallocated, but the first two sentences show
that decoupling the Bypass section from the
larger scheme is a distinct possibility. The
main bit of work still to be done is the
analysis of the Inspector's Report from last
September's Public Inquiry which has been
received but not published.
15 Apr 2013: According to a Question
for Written Answer in the Assembly, the
DRD Minister has now received the report from
the Inspector at last September's Public
Inquiry. This is almost exactly to the timescale
predicted at the end of the Inquiry (see update
below for 4 Oct) which is nice. The report will
not be published just yet. Typically, the DRD
take a few months to examine it and respond to
any recommendations before publishing both the
inspector's report and their response (called a
"Departmental Statement") simultaneously. We
could expect to see this before the end of 2013.
Given the recent delays on the A5 project, the
"Dungiven Bypass" element of this scheme (a
small but critical part of the whole scheme) is
surely high up on the list of possible schemes
to be taken forward at an earlier date, so it is
very timely that the Public Inquiry report has
been received. Let us hope that there were not
too many issues with the plans.
24 Oct 2012: For those with a particular
interest in this scheme, Roads Service have just
published transcripts of the six day Public
Inquiry that took place a month ago. You can download
them here. This is only the third time
that I know of that Roads Service have published
such transcripts (the first two being for the
A55 at Knock and the A5 WTC) and is a very
welcome development for public transparency.
Happy reading!
4 Oct 2012: The Public Inquiry into this
scheme took place as planned from 24th September
to 2nd October, and finished on schedule having
heard over 125 objections. The Inspector, JA
Robb, will finish by conducting site visits on
9th and 10th October. The DRD say that they
expect the Inspector to submit his report
"before the end of March 2013", but it is
important to note that it will not be published
at that point. The DRD typically take a few
months more to consider the recommendations and
outline their response before publishing it. So
we might expect to see it around the summer time
next year. Detailed information about the
objections, along with transcripts of the Public
Inquiry are (or soon will be) available
here. With thanks to Paul McCloskey. Some
(including me!) are speculating that the
unexpected delays to the A5 scheme over the past
month might free up some money over the coming
months that could potentially be redirected to
the Dungiven Bypass element of this scheme. This
is quite possible, since the Minister has
already indicated
that he is sympathetic to the idea of proceeding
with the Dungiven Bypass ahead of the rest of
the scheme. Watch this space.
26 Jun 2012:
We now
know that the Public Inquiry into this
scheme will begin at 10am on 24 September 2012,
in the Roe Park Hotel, 40 Drumrane Road,
Limavady BT49 9LB. The Inspector will be JA
Robb, who was also the Inspector for the A8
Larne Public Inquiry and the A6
Castledawson-Randalstown dualling Public
Inquiry. Roads Service has also published their
pre-Inquiry Departmental
Statement, which sets out in considerable
detail their case for building the road as
proposed. This contains some interesting
historical information and is worth a read for
that reason alone. In another interesting
development, speaking
in the Assembly yesterday the DRD Minister
gave a strong hint that the Dungiven Bypass
section may be decoupled from the rest of the
scheme and built separately. They had previously
resisted this as it was anticipated that the
entire A6 scheme would proceed before too long,
and hence there was little to gain by dealing
with Dungiven separately. However, as it now
seems as if it could be some years before the
scheme is built, there would now be merit in
building the Dungiven Bypass scheme separately
(see update below for 14 Feb 2012). The Minister
said: "I can
confirm that it will be possible to bring
forward the draft statutory Orders for the
construction of the bypass at Dungiven ahead
of and without compromising the future
delivery of the remainder of that scheme.
However, this is, of course, all conditional
on available funding." This is
interesting news.
24 Jun 2012: The
DRD Minister has announced
that (not surprisingly) a Public Inquiry will be
held into this scheme, since it attracted 122
objections during the consultation period
between December 2011 and March 2012. The
Inquiry will probably be held in late September,
and further details are due to be released this
week. This is later than anticipated last
summer, but still welcome. There is currently no
financial commitment to actually build the
scheme, but it is important to keep progressing
the scheme so that it is 'good to go' if and
when money becomes available.
14 Feb 2012:
Today saw a major
announcement of how the money for roads
will be spent over the next four years. This
scheme was not among them. This was not
surprising, but until now we have had at least
hoped that it might begin around 2014/15 (see
update below for 11 May 2011). Today's
announcement means it won't commence until at
least 2015. However, it is disappointing that
the Minister has not at least chosen to press
ahead with the Dungiven Bypass element of the
scheme. Dungiven is the only town not bypassed
on the entire A6, and all the traffic pollutes
the village. However, it should be said in the
Minister's defense that the scheme has not yet
had its public inquiry, and this means even the
Dungiven Bypass could not commence for at least
a couple of years, even if it was decided to go
ahead with it separately. The money that is
available needs to be spent sooner than that
timescale would allow.
8 Jan 2012: Roads
Service will be holding the next round of public
exhibitions into this scheme this month. As
always, I would urge anyone with an interest in
the scheme to turn up as this is a vital part of
the process, and an opportunity to express your
views. According to this
press release, issued just before
Christmas, the exhibition dates are:
The deadline for comments and objections is 2
March 2012.
For those interested in history, this
scheme page now contains links to multiple
historical documents.
17 Dec 2011:
The draft legal orders for this scheme were
published on 14th December. These include the Environmental
Statement (sets out what impact the scheme
will have on society and the environment and is
required by law). It also includes the draft legal
order (required to build a new trunk road)
and the vesting orders, part
1 and part
2 (which define whose land they will be
buying to build the road) and some other
documents. The Environmental Statement includes
revised plans for the junction, which are
interesting in that two junctions have been dropped entirely
- which is excellent news as they merely
provided superfluous links across to the
existing A6 which will remain in place as a
perfectly adequate route (presumably with a
60mph speed limit) for accessing all the
properties along that stretch. The changes made
since we were last given junction designs in May
2009 are as follows:
4 Jul 2011: The Minister has confirmed
that the draft legal documents required to build
the road will be published "later this year",
and that the Public Inquiry will likely be held
in Spring 2012, slightly later than expected in
April. This does not imply that the road will go
ahead any earlier than previously stated, merely
that Roads Service want to press ahead with the
process so that, subject to the Inquiry,
construction of the road can go ahead once
finance is available.
14 May 2011: Speaking at the
Annual Dinner of the Chartered Institution of
Highway Enginners Northern Ireland, the
Permanent Secretary of the Department for
Regional Development Malcolm McKibbin said "development
work is proceeding on the A6 schemes and late
changes to the draft budget mean that we
should also be able to start construction in
the last year of the budget period"
(quoted in Plant & Civil Engineer, May
2011). There are two "A6 schemes" - this one,
and the scheme to dual the A6 from Randalstown
to Castledawson. The Minister's comments last
month about Dungiven (see previous update)
suggest that Mr McKibbin may be referring
specifically to this scheme when he says that
construction should be able to start, but it's
possible he means both. Previously both schemes
were delayed until at least 2015. The "last year
of the budget period" is the financial year
running from April 2014 to April 2015.
27 Apr 2011: The Minister has
confirmed in a Written
Answer that development work will proceed
on this scheme over the next few years, despite
there not being enough money to build it. In
particular, he suggests that the draft legal
documents required to build the road will be
released in late 2011, and that the Public
Inquiry is likely to take place in "late
2011/early 2012" - somewhat later than was
anticipated last Autumn. He also implies again
that the 2.5km Dungiven Bypass may be built
ahead of the main scheme. The cost is now
being given as "£350m-£390m", slightly
higher than the figure of "£320-£390m"
being quoted in late 2009.
7 Mar 2011: Roads Service have
come into some new money, to the tune of £107m,
and this
press release suggests that some of it may
be put towards the A6. The Minister does not say
which of the two A6 schemes it refers to
(Randalstown to Castledawson or Derry to
Dungiven), but his comment that "the Dungiven
Bypass will be the priority" suggests it is this
scheme. The money is nowhere near enough to
complete this entire scheme, so it is possible
that the 2.5km Dungiven Bypass section may
proceed before the rest of the scheme - but this
is not stated, so we don't know. Dungiven is
singled out because it is now the only town on
the entire Belfast to Derry route that is not
14 Jan 2011: Roads Service have
revealed their budget for 2011-2015 and,
due to lack of money, this scheme has now been
put on hold, seemingly until at least 2015. The
only note is that funding will be available to "continue
development" of the project, but not
actually build it. In the reduced funding
climate all available monies are being funnelled
into the A5 and A8 schemes.
19 Oct 2010: In a Written
Answer in the Assembly, the Minister has
said that the legal documents that are required
(see update below on 16 Feb) will be published
in early 2011, which represents a bit of
slippage on the dates given earlier this year.
The estimated date of the Public Inquiry is now
being given as "summer 2011". Assuming the
public inquiry passes the scheme, and subject to
the availability of finance, the Minister is
saying that work should begin in 2013. Due to
the inevitable budget cuts in the coming months,
the Minister for Finance has asked all other
Ministers to suggest how their budgets could be
cut. However the Minister for Regional
Development is currently reluctant to suggest
places were cuts could be made in his
department, which makes it impossible to assess
whether or not the 2013 date is realistic.
Hopefully the situation will become clearer in
the near future once firm decisions have been
made. A number of "Health Impact Assessment"
workshops were held in late September, and
details can be found on the Roads Service web
site. It's not immediately clear from the
material on the web site what material impact
this will have on the scheme.
18 Aug 2010: In a briefing
to Derry City Council in July, Roads Service
have said that work on this scheme is still
expected to begin in "early 2013". However, we
should not rely too much on this since the
important budget decisions due to be taken in
the coming months are likely to impact on roads.
16 Feb 2010: According to the
Minister in the Assembly
on 8 Feb 2010, design work is continuing and
Roads Service hope to publish the draft
Direction Order (basically the legal document
giving permission to build a new main road) and
the draft Vesting Order (the legal document
needed to buy the land to build the road)
"before the end of of 2010". The cost was
re-stated, and has not changed, at £320m-£390m.
18 Jan 2010: The terminus of
the new road at the Derry end will require
changes to the A2 Clooney Road, mainly involving
improving the alignment and standard, and
removing one roundabout. A public exhibition of
what is proposed will take place at The
North West Teachers Centre, 24 Temple
Road, Strathfoyle on Tuesday 19th January
5pm-9pm and Wednesday 20th January 1pm-9pm. I
would encourage all those with an interest in
the scheme to turn up as this is one of the main
ways that the public can engage with the
7 Jan 2010: According to a Written
Answer in the Assembly in late December
2009, the current estimate of the cost of this
scheme has risen to "£320m to £390m" which is a
further increase on the "£320m" estimated in
December 2008.
6 May 2009: The Minister
announced the
preferred route today. The new road will
be built to dual-two lane standard, with 1 metre
hard strips and no central reserve crossings.
Starting at a new roundabout east of Dungiven,
it will bypass Dungiven to the south before
following an offline route for the first 10km.
It will then join the existing A6 where it will
be an online upgrade past Claudy until close to
Drumahoe. It then heads cross country again to
the north to join the existing A2 road at a new
roundabout at Gransha. This is quite far north,
so we could expect a large percentage of
motorists will elect to leave the road at
Drumahoe and use the existing A6 past
Altnagelvin rather than go all the way up to
Gransha. All seven intermediate junctions will
be grade separated - six with a "compact" design
and one (Drumahoe) with a larger layout. There
may also be a westbound left-in/left-out
junction at Burntollet, but the Road Service map
is not clear enough to determine if this is
true. I have put an approximate
version of the route onto a Google Maps overlay,
seen by clicking
here. The press are reporting that
construction will start in 2012 and last until
2016, but this is not stated in the Roads
Service material. The official position late
last year was construction commencing in 2013
subject to the availability of funding.
27 April
2009: Roads Service have said that
the preferred route will be announced in early
May, and details will be on display to the
public at the following locations and dates:
All those with an
interest in the scheme should be urged to turn
up, as this is one of the key meetings to have
your questions answered and raise any concerns.
Representatives from Roads Service and the
design company will be there.
16 Dec 2008: According to a Stormont
Assembly written answer last week, the
estimated cost of the scheme has now risen to
£320m. It confirms that the preferred route is
due to be announced in the Spring of 2009 and
again tentatively suggests commencement may be
around 2012/13.
10 Dec 2008: Roads Service
published a
4-page leaflet on the scheme last month.
It does not contain any new information, but
confirms the timescale previously announced and
provides a useful summary of the scheme.
21 Oct 2008: According to an Assembly
written answer from 17 October, the scheme
is still on schedule for commencement "during
the 2012/13 financial year". The answer also
states that the Dungiven Bypass portion of the
scheme will take about 18 months to complete.
There have been hints that this part of the
scheme may progress early on in the scheme to
ensure that it is open as soon as possible.
15 Jun 2008: According to this
press release, the cost of the project has
risen to £300m (up from £250m estimated in
2005). It also revealed that the preferred route
is due to be announced in the summer of 2009 and
that "over 100 people" are involved in the route
development in one form or another. The press
release has also said that Roads Service are now
investigating how to provide a link from the A6
at Drumahoe to the A5 on the south side of the
city. Such a link would almost certainly follow
a new offline route. It is unclear if this link
would be part of this scheme, or be a separate
24 May 2008: Roads Service are
holding a series of public exhibitions between
20 and 28 May. They are using these to reveal
the five chosen route corridors. Interestingly,
some of these stray OUTSIDE the route corridor
announced last year and thus there is now an
"expanded" route corridor. At the Derry end it
now looks almost certain that the road will tie
in to the existing A2 between Caw and Maydown
rather than the Crescent Link itself. At the
Dungiven end two new routes for the bypass of
the town are being considered, after complaints
about the current route that will sever a GAA
training ground. One of these passes further to
the south, beyond the river, while the other
passes to the north of the town. All the
documents made available on the days are also online
here, including more detailed versions of
the above maps.
28 Apr 2008: The publication
in April 2008 of the "Investment
Delivery Plan for Roads" document has
allayed fears that the scheme will be delayed,
since it includes this scheme in the
"Preparation pool" which contains schemes
anticipated to begin within 5 years, ie by 2013.
8 Mar 2008: According to
Roads Service, ground surveys on the chosen
route corridor are underway. This will inform
the decision on a preferred route within this
corridor. Roads Service still have the scheme in
their "preparation pool" (construction
anticipated within 5 years or so) but with the
recent announcements by Conor Murphy (see
previous updates) it's still unclear what the
timescale is.
5 Feb 2008: Conor Murphy has
again denied that there is any slippage in
the timetable for the project. He said that "it
is not correct to state that there has been
slippage on the A6 Derry to Dungiven project.
Indeed in July 2007 I announced the
appointment of consultants to examine options
to enable the selection of a preferred route
by spring 2009". There is no doubt that
this is true, but it only refers to the first
element of the project. The "slippage" being
noted is in the timescale for completion of the
project as a whole. When first announced,Roads
Service were saying that the scheme would be
delivered within the timetable of the Regional
Strategic Transport Plan which ran from
2005-2015. Now, they are saying that it's going
to be delivered within the timetable of the
Investment Strategy 2008-2018. While it's only a
time period, it still has the potential
to delay the project by up to three years.
30 Dec 2007: Conor Murphy responded
to the media reports last week by assuring
business leaders that the scheme has NOT been
cancelled and will proceed. However, while
reassuring, his statement does seem to be a
disguised attempt to sneak a revised timescale
through. When the scheme was first announced in
2005, it was stated that it would be built
within the timescale of the Regional Strategic
Transportation Network Transport Plan 2015, ie
by 2015. However in this week's statement, Conor
Murphy now says that it will be built within the
timescale of the draft Investment Strategy
2008-2018, ie by 2018. This subtle change means
that the project could potentially be delayed by
up to three years. This would seem inevitable
give the level of financial committment required
for the A5 dualling scheme.
24 Dec 2007: As has been noted
by the media, this scheme is mysteriously
missing from the Draft Investment Strategy
2008-2018 which was published in October. This
Strategy (admittedly a draft) outlines the
targets of spending of £3bn on roads over the
next ten years. Under its list of "key
milestones" it lists the A4 dualling scheme
(Dungannon to Ballygawley), completion of the A1
dualling, completion of the M1, M2 and Westlink
upgrades, the recently announced A5 dualling scheme
(Londonderry to Aughnacloy) and the A8 dualling
scheme (to Larne). However there is no
mention of the A6 dualling scheme. According to
Derry Chamber of Commerce, the DRD has said that
the A6 scheme may be put on hold or delayed.
This is speculation, but it is
worth noting that the shortfall required in
order to undertake the A5 dualling scheme is
£260m. This is almost the same amount as the
cost of this scheme. So it is possible that the
Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy has
decided to take the money from this scheme and
use it to fund the A5 scheme instead. If so, and
it is only guesswork, then it is likely to
prompt a lot of debate on the subject.
Background to Scheme
The Regional Strategic Transport Plan,
published in 2004, explained why it was thought
that further dualling of the 40km of the A6
beyond Castledawson could not go ahead before
B3.3.41 When the funding envisaged by RTS
is extended to 2015, there would be £529.4m
available for Strategic Road Improvements in
the RSTN TP period. However, this is fully
taken up by the high priority SRIs proposed
across the RSTN, including the £171.9m
envisaged for SRI schemes on routes serving
the North-West. Therefore, within the
funding assumptions of this Plan, it would
not be realistic to expect that further
dualling of the A6 could be undertaken
within the Plan period (apart from the
Randalstown to Castledawson section already
proposed). B3.3.42 However, further dualling
of the A6 will be required outside the RSTN
Plan period, in order to develop and upgrade
the link between Northern Ireland's two
largest cities by 2025. Therefore, during
the Plan period it will be necessary to plan
the route of a dual carriageway between
Castledawson and Derry, by undertaking a
route selection study. This will inform the
decision regarding the acquisition of land
and route protection lines, e.g. for the
Dungiven Bypass.
B3.3.41 When the funding envisaged by RTS
is extended to 2015, there would be £529.4m
available for Strategic Road Improvements in
the RSTN TP period. However, this is fully
taken up by the high priority SRIs proposed
across the RSTN, including the £171.9m
envisaged for SRI schemes on routes serving
the North-West. Therefore, within the
funding assumptions of this Plan, it would
not be realistic to expect that further
dualling of the A6 could be undertaken
within the Plan period (apart from the
Randalstown to Castledawson section already
proposed). B3.3.42 However, further dualling
of the A6 will be required outside the RSTN
Plan period, in order to develop and upgrade
the link between Northern Ireland's two
largest cities by 2025. Therefore, during
the Plan period it will be necessary to plan
the route of a dual carriageway between
Castledawson and Derry, by undertaking a
route selection study. This will inform the
decision regarding the acquisition of land
and route protection lines, e.g. for the
Dungiven Bypass.
This lack of funding
was rectified suddenly and somewhat unexpectedly
in December 2005 by the announcement of
sufficient funding for the Dungiven to Derry
section. Prophetically, the RSTN did comment
that "It is... likely that future dualling
in the 2015 to 2025 period will commence at
the Londonderry end of the route." This
is because traffic levels are highest at the
Toome and Derry ends of the A6, and lowest at
the Glenshane Pass and because of the difficult
terrain crossing the Sperrins. Traffic figures
collected in 2004 showed the following daily
traffic at various points on the A6:
Thanks to Diarmaid Elder for the traffic
information on this page.
A typical view of the A6
road in its current form, here seen near
Dungiven. [Photo by Wesley Johnston]
Dungiven town centre is
the biggest bottleneck on the route, and will
get a bypass. [Photo by Wesley Johnston]
Lots more photos of
the road are available on the Roads Service web
site - see link at the top of this page.