A5 - Derry Dual Carraigeway

spacetweek

Ffs!

Irish_rat

I've driven on it once and the amount of traffic for a narrow S2 road is mental.

mikeym

Those poor Unionist farmers :mad:

I have no sympathy for them.

For a lot of people it's now or never. We are facing into another public inquiry process and we still strongly feel that we are working in the best interests of the people in the province over the long-term.
"There are several important issues in play. Economically this road does not make sense and environmentally it does not make sense. It will be divisive to communities and settlements along the route. We don't think the A5 is in the interests of the country.
"No one knows what this road is going to cost. There has been no clear up-to-date costing of the scheme. If it goes ahead, we don't think that it can be completed. We certainly don't see the Omagh to Strabane section being completed within the next 10 years.

Its going to cost the taxpayer more with all these appeals.

And I would say that it would be of huge benefit to the Province in the long term.

spacetweek

Economically it makes a lot of sense to rebalance NI away from Belfast which currently is the origin of all its dual carriageway and motorway network. The environmental impacts are mostly happening already due to current traffic levels and pollution levels will tail off soon as transport goes electric.

He doesn't care whether Omagh to Strabane will be completed as he doesn't want any of the road to be built! Not sure what his point is there.
The cost is mainly uncertain due to all the delays due to appeals like his.

betistuc

Does anyone remember if the Belfast to Dungannon M1 provoked any outrage from Unionist farmers. I'm sure it went through some prime land on its route but it wasn't heading towards Dublin These people think this road is a link to Dublin, hence the fire and brimstone.

nordydan

mikeym wrote: »

Those poor Unionist farmers :mad:

I have no sympathy for them.

There were no legal challenges to the A8 or A26 upgrades......just saying...

JupiterKid

nordydan wrote: »

There were no legal challenges to the A8 or A26 upgrades......just saying...

Yes indeed. This is just pure sectarian spite towards the West of the province masquerading as environmental concerns. I've no doubt about it.

road_high

Deedsie wrote: »

Listening to a radio interview on BBC Ulster, unionist politician arguing that the A75 Stranraer to Carlisle would be a far better use to Northern Ireland than the A5 linking Derry to Dublin.

WTF? It's in a different country (...not to mention island)...
That would be like someone from Wexford arguing the A40 to Fishguard through Pembrokeshire, Wales should be upgraded over the N/M11. Mental

nordydan

road_high wrote: »

WTF? It's in a different country (...not to mention island)...
That would be like someone from Wexford arguing the A40 to Fishguard through Pembrokeshire, Wales should be upgraded over the N/M11. Mental

Gregory Campbell??

spuddy

Deedsie wrote: »

Jim Alister of the Traditional Unionist Voice party.

Here's a link if anyone is interested.

road_high

spuddy wrote: »

Here's a link if anyone is interested.

Good ole Jim. Bless him

marno21

According to NI roads expert Wesley Johnson on Twitter, A5 dualling Phase I from Newbuildings to Strabane should start before Christmas.

BelfastVanMan

marno21 wrote: »

According to NI roads expert Wesley Johnson on Twitter, A5 dualling Phase I from Newbuildings to Strabane should start before Christmas.

Providing it isn't held up again by Loyalist NIMBYs....

marno21

Whatever about your political views on the matter, the DUP deal with the Tories is a good move for NI roads.

York Street Interchange is to go ahead costing £165, with £235m left to spend. Candidates include further A6 dualling, more money for the A5 amongst others.

road_high

marno21 wrote: »

Whatever about your political views on the matter, the DUP deal with the Tories is a good move for NI roads.

York Street Interchange is to go ahead costing £165, with £235m left to spend. Candidates include further A6 dualling, more money for the A5 amongst others.

They so need it...struck by a few trips into Fermanagh at how poor they are- even surface, signage and general maintenance felt very 1980s.
Very used to daily encounters with motorways where I live as is so much of the South now and expanding still.

cargo

Had another few trips up along the A5 in the past fortnight although this time only as far as Omagh... It's as painful as ever!! It's such a pity they cant get working on some of the southern section asap especially a full bypass around Omagh.

xabi

marno21 wrote: »

Whatever about your political views on the matter, the DUP deal with the Tories is a good move for NI roads.

York Street Interchange is to go ahead costing £165, with £235m left to spend. Candidates include further A6 dualling, more money for the A5 amongst others.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting on some of that cash being spent west of the Bann.

lucernarian

xabi wrote: »

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting on some of that cash being spent west of the Bann.

Indeed, I'm thinking of miraculous prioritisation of the A26 north of Ballymena, which isn't a great road I suppose.

L1011

lucernarian wrote: »

Indeed, I'm thinking of miraculous prioritisation of the A26 north of Ballymena, which isn't a great road I suppose.

Decent ish bit opened on that only a few weeks ago - not sure what status further plans are at but they have definitely expended efforts and the little cash they had before on doing it!

7km upgraded from very poor SC to narrow DC with GSJs; a marginally better standard than our 2+2s but only marginally.

edit: Wesley Johnston has a Ballymoney-Coleraine dualling medium term planned (a tiny isolated stretch was dualled maybe 40 years ago).

http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/roads/a26duallingballymoneytocoleraine.html

Ballymoney Bypass is decent but SC; however like all offline SCs built in NI during that period it has a land reservation for parallel dualling. Would probably be less safe as a DC due to the crossing roads.

Donegal Storm

A6 Dungiven bypass must be high on the priority list surely? The whole section from Derry to Magherafelt could use an upgrade

L1011

Dungivan Bypass all the way to Derry was tendered this year however suspicion is that the tender was released as electioneering; can't find anything suggesting it was awarded and it was some months ago.

Magherafelt to the existing M22 is being dualled at the moment; bar a bit in the middle held up by a legal challenge. Contracts signed for the lot if that gets sorted.

Bit between those two schemes is long fingered.

marno21

I didn't realise Varadkar had mentioned committing €465m on top of the £125m given already to this.

http://www.derrydaily.net/2017/05/26/mccallion-gives-guarded-welcome-to-varadkars-e465m-a5-pledge/

A5 Newbuildings to Strabane to start in Nov/Dec 17 pending outcome of public hearing.

Chris_5339762

IMO they're starting with the wrong section, thats a piddly little bit that doesn't really bypass anything.

Omagh bypass should be the first bit to be done, that place can be awful to drive through.

NIMAN

I drove derry-strabane-omagh-enniskillen last week.

Absolutely shocking. So slow with little or no overtaking possibilities. If you have a queue behind a large truck, a tractor or a slow driver, it's tedious.

Kevwoody

I remember years ago as a kid going up the North and if you closed your eyes you could always tell when you crossed the border as the roads in the south were of shocking quality. It's the exact opposite now, both the A5 and the Derry to Belfast road are an absolute nightmare to drive on, there has been very little or no improvement made to them in 20 years. Roads in the south are miles ahead in quality.

L1011

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

IMO they're starting with the wrong section, thats a piddly little bit that doesn't really bypass anything.

Omagh bypass should be the first bit to be done, that place can be awful to drive through.

They're starting the bit that the Unionists aren't opposing for nonsense reasons (because they daren't let anywhere west of the Bann economically develop, basically)

D.L.R.

Kevwoody wrote: »

I remember years ago as a kid going up the North and if you closed your eyes you could always tell when you crossed the border as the roads in the south were of shocking quality. It's the exact opposite now, both the A5 and the Derry to Belfast road are an absolute nightmare to drive on, there has been very little or no improvement made to them in 20 years. Roads in the south are miles ahead in quality.

Lets not get carried away.

Outside the motorway network and a few decent N roads, the south's network is still poxy.

Northern Ireland's secondary roads and urban roads are better maintained than the ROI's.

Yes the A5 is pretty bad, but no worse than the N20, N17, N5, etc.

Kevwoody

D.L.R. wrote: »

Lets not get carried away.

Outside the motorway network and a few decent N roads, the south's network is still poxy.

Northern Ireland's secondary roads and urban roads are better maintained than the ROI's.

Yes the A5 is pretty bad, but no worse than the N20, N17, N5, etc.

I agree that the likes of the N20 and N5 are a mess, but I don't agree that northern roads are better maintained. Their signage for instance, is in tatters compared to ours, and a lot of the surfaces are in poor shape too.
My main point anyway, is the fact they have done almost no improvement works on their 2 main roads, the A2 and A5 in over 20 years.

BelfastVanMan

Kevwoody wrote: »

D.L.R. wrote: »

Lets not get carried away.

Outside the motorway network and a few decent N roads, the south's network is still poxy.

Northern Ireland's secondary roads and urban roads are better maintained than the ROI's.

Yes the A5 is pretty bad, but no worse than the N20, N17, N5, etc.

I agree that the likes of the N20 and N5 are a mess, but I don't agree that northern roads are better maintained. Their signage for instance, is in tatters compared to ours, and a lot of the surfaces are in poor shape too.
My main point anyway, is the fact they have done almost no improvement works on their 2 main roads, the A2 and A5 in over 20 years.

The A5 Newtownstewart Bypass opened in 2003, A5 Omagh Throughpass completed in 2006, A5 Strabane Throughpass, A5 Tullyvar Road realignment in 2010...

NedNew2

Kevwoody wrote: »

I agree that the likes of the N20 and N5 are a mess, but I don't agree that northern roads are better maintained. Their signage for instance, is in tatters compared to ours, and a lot of the surfaces are in poor shape too.
My main point anyway, is the fact they have done almost no improvement works on their 2 main roads, the A2 and A5 in over 20 years.

Agreed, the roads in the North are clearly behind those in the South. It's like stopping back 15 years when driving up there.