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The A45 is a strange U-shaped A-class road that serves Coalisland and Dungannon. It leaves the M1 motorway at junction 14, heads through Coalisland, then through Dungannon and re-joins the A4 dual-carriageway at Granville. The most confined spot is Creenagh Bridge (known locally as Hogg's Bridge)  on the southern edge of Coalisland, where the road turns at 90° immediately after crossing the Torrent River. The reasons are historic. Creenagh Bridge was once on a straighter section of 18th century road that is still there today – made up of Loughview Road (to the north) and Creenagh Bridge Road (to the south) – see map below. In the 19th century, the Ballynakilly Road was built to offer gentler gradients and it was awkwardly glued into each side of the bridge, creating the current setup. This was fine in the days of stagecoaches, but it is problematic for HGVs today.

The solution is to demolish the existing concrete beam bridge and replace it with a new concrete culvert bridge with 160 metres of new road following a gentler curve. This work also requires the existing river to be diverted to the south over a short length. Once the river has been diverted, a short length of new road will connect Loughview Road to the new alignment.

Updates

24 Apr 2026: The speculation I reported two weeks ago was correct – the road will open fully at 4pm on 30 April 2026. This is significantly ahead of schedule – at project commencement it was planned to complete in the summer of 2026. The press release also gives the final price as £1.9m, slightly higher from the £1.6m that was quoted in August 2025. DFI Minister Liz Kimmins said "The Bridge replacement and significant road realignment will improve safety for pedestrians and road users on the A45 Ballynakilly Road between Coalisland and the M1 Motorway.  It will also assist with heavy goods vehicle movement and improve commercial connectivity in this area. This substantial investment also includes the construction of an Active Travel footway for 270metres over the scheme linking to the Ballynakilly Road, which will deliver significant benefits for residents and road users who travel through this area. These schemes demonstrate my commitment to improving our road and active travel networks which are vital for connecting our businesses and communities." Congratulations are due to Charles Brand Group Ltd for an excellent piece of work. The drone photos below were released by DFI and show the scheme at the start left) and almost completed (right). The show not only the re road, but the realigned Torrent river.

10 Apr 2026: A post on Facebook by Dan Kerr from Wednesday shows some interesting ground-level views of the scheme. The post also suggests that scheme completion is now due around the end of April, due to some adverse weather. That is still well ahead of the date of "summer 2026" that we were expecting at project commencement.

4 Mar 2026: Children from a local primary school visited the works a couple of weeks ago. Civil engineering projects are a great thing to bring children to see, partly because it teaches them how the built environment comes to exist, and partly because it may inspire some to seek a career in civils. It's hard to tell from the images, but it does look as if the new bridge might be getting a stone parapet, which would match the old bridge.

27 Jan 2026: Just a very quick update to share this wonderful drone movie of the scheme taken by Sean Mcaliskey on Christmas Eve. It shows the new bridge completed, the old one gone (though with some utilities from the old bridge still in place over the gap!) and the bed for the new road largely completed. The main task now will be to construct the new road over all these new foundations and reopen the road. The official schedule is to have it completed by the summer, but with such good progress it could happen sooner than that.

24 Nov 2025: A quick update to share some more photos from the site taken within the past few days. As you can see the earth approach embankments to the new bridge appear to now be under construction.

10 Nov 2025: Sean McAliskey posted a video of the works on Facebook on 2 November. It shows not only the new box culvert finished, but also the Torrent River already diverted beneath it. You can see the current state of the works in the video, including a closeup of the green textiles that are used to strengthen the earth river banks to give time for nature to reclaim it. Presumably work will now focus on the area that the river used to occupy, to prepare the foundations for the diverted road. the old bridge will also need removed at some point, though it doesn't look as if the contractor is in a rush to do that.

22 Oct 2025: Work got underway about six weeks ago and so far has progressed rapidly. The road has been closed completely for the duration of the works, since the river diversion requires the removal of the original road at an early stage. The Facebook post here was put up two weeks ago and shows the new box culvert bridge partially completed and excavation for the new route of the river underway. Thanks to all who wrote to me about this scheme.