New delivery unit to look at delayed York Street interchange project

It emerged last week that the major roads project in north Belfast will not be completed for at least another 11 years.

It was first commissioned in 2007 to address a bottleneck at the point where several motorways meet coming into Belfast.

However, the project has been delayed by a number of objections, legal action and a public inquiry in 2015.

In the same year, the project was estimated to cost between £120 million and £165 million.

It recently emerged that some £23.7 million had been spent on the project by the end of March 2023, and a further £1 million has been allocated for the 2023/34 financial year.

Stormont Infrastructure Committee chair Deborah Erskine last week said she intended to write to Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd – who took up the reins of the department in January following the restoration of devolved government – to ask for further detail on the spending.

On Monday, during Assembly questions for the Executive Office, DUP MLA Cheryl Brownlee said the project is a huge opportunity, and was supported by funding secured in her party’s confidence and supply agreement with former prime minister Theresa May in 2017.

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said some of the big capital investment projects such as Titanic Belfast have been delivered and are successful, but there were also other key examples where delivery has not been achieved.

“Eleven years in relation to this project was frustrating, it did feature in terms of the confidence and supply arrangement because of the frustrations of how long that was taking,” she responded.

“This is something we do need to look at. Our hope would be that the new delivery unit that would be set up under the Executive Office will be able to examine this issue in particular, capital delivery, and try to ensure we do get these delivered in a timely way.”

Pressed by Ms Brownlee as to whether she will “continue to raise this as a priority within the Executive”, Ms Little-Pengelly agreed, describing such big capital projects as “key levers in terms of the growth of our economy”.

“We need to grow our economy here in Northern Ireland. That can only happen with that type of investment and the essential infrastructure. This will continue to be a key priority,” she said.

“This and some other projects must serve as an example to be looked at in terms of our delivery unit proposal to see what can be done to ensure that this doesn’t happen again, and these big capital projects and infrastructure projects can move forward in a timely way.”