The A514 is an increasingly important road in Derry city. Starting at the A6 trunk road from Belfast at Lisnagelvin it goes generally north in an arc (hence to the name) to the A515 Foyle Bridge which continues onto the cityside of the River Foyle. It is a very busy road as it is one of only two access points to the west of the city. Originally built along with the Foyle Bridge, probably around 1984, in the countryside it was filled with housing on the west side by the year 2000 and the area to the east is rapidly expanding as of 2007.

The Crescent Link was upgraded to dual-carriageway standard in three phrases beginning in late 2003 when phase 1 began. The three phases were:

• Caw Roundabout to Crescent Link Rounabout [eastern bit] - Mar 2004
• Crescent Link Roundabout to Kilfennan Roundabout [middle bit] - Nov 2006
• Kilfennan Roundabout to Altnagelvin Roundabout [western bit] - Nov 2007

The road feeds onto the dual-carriageway A515 Foyle Bridge, and ultimately to the A515 Skeoge Link dual-carriageway which was under construction at the time of writing (Dec 2007) and will complete a ring road from the east to the west of Londonderry that is almost all dual-carriageway (the stretch from the end of the Foyle Bridge to the start of the Skeoge Link is single carriageway). The part dualled in phase 2 has a central crash barrier, while the phase 1 portion only has a wide grass verge – see photos below. Please let me know if you have seen what type of barrier phase 3 has.

Links above link to pages about each individual phase of the dualling scheme.

Photos

Looking north along the A514 Crescent Link between Crescent Link Roundabout and the Foyle Bridge in late August 2006. (This was phase 1 of the dualling programme.) [Photo by Diarmaid Elder]

Looking north along the A514 Crescent Link approaching Crescent Link Retail Park on 16 Sep 2006. (This was phase 2 of the dualling programme.) [Photo by Diarmaid Elder]