Ben Lowry: Three needed road upgrades that are in the news '” the A1, the A5 and the A75
The A5 upgrade in the northwest of the Province is facing another environmental challenge before a section of it goes to construction.
This raises the question of whether our road planning systems are rigorous enough, and if so, why such challenges are allowed after the road has been approved.
The A1 junction improvements are crawling towards fruition.
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Hide AdThis involves a crucial plan to close all the so-called gap junctions in the central reservation between Lisburn and Loughbrickland.
Such junctions are deadly on any road, but particularly on one as busy as the Sprucefield to Newry A1. I find it a stressful road to drive because I have reported on several fatalities on that route at those gap junctions. As you drive down the road, vehicles come across the road from those junctions like darts.
A number of new flyover junctions will be built so that no-one can turn right across the road.
Anyone turning right will first have to drive left to a flyover junction, and then cross at that point, before heading in the direction they wanted to go.
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Hide AdThis upgrade is urgently needed, yet it is only going to ‘consultation’.
When gap junctions finally are closed, there will at last be an almost flawless road link the entire distance from Belfast to Dublin.
Which brings me to the last road that was in the news: the A75 between Stranraer and the Scottish border with England. It is a dangerous single carriageway in which cars get caught behind lorries and so overtake, which is potentially lethal.
The much-needed upgrade of the road was debated at Westminster and supported by MPs including Nigel Dodds.
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Hide AdI love driving via the A75 to England, but until it is improved the better route is via Dublin. There is a motorway right to Dublin port, and then a dual carriageway or motorway all the way from Holyhead.
When the A1 upgrade is complete, it will be all the better as a route.
• Ben Lowry (@BenLowry2) is News Letter deputy editor