|
|
Status
|
Construction
scheme (proposed) |
|
Where
|
To
construct a link road connecting Lurgan
Road and Huntly Road in Banbridge. |
|
Total
Length
|
0.5 km / 0.3 miles
|
|
Dates
|
Oct 2013 - Included in
adopted Banbridge,
Newry and Mourne Area Plan
No plans to construct in near future -
as of Aug 2014
|
|
Cost
|
£unknown - I
estimate roughly £3m based on similar
schemes.
|
|
Photos
/ Maps
|
See below. |
|
See
Also
|
General
area map - Google Maps
|
Banbridge is a busy
town, and much of the traffic in the town tends
to focus on Church
Square, a junction where the two busiest
routes into the town - Church Street and Dromore
Street - meet. Much of the this traffic is
intending to travel south towards the town
centre which means that Church Square and Bridge
Street, ie across the Bann Bridge (where the
town gets its name) is a bottleneck. This road
proposal is designed to create a bypass of
Church Square for traffic entering Banbridge
from Church Street. This would relieve Church
Square by reducing traffic levels there. The
route proposed is mostly that of the former
railway line, and it will require a new bridge
over the Bann. The map below shows the proposed
route:
View Lurgan
Road to Huntley Road Link, Banbridge in
a larger map
The route proposed is largely free of
development, but it would seem to require
the demolition of, or encroachment upon, a
number of commercial properties on Huntly
Road, most notably the Ulsterbus depot which
is directly in the path of the proposed
road. It would also be an expensive scheme,
mainly because of the need for a large
bridge, but also because of the need to
acquire land. The proposal has the reference
number BE59 in the 2013 Banbridge, Newry and
Mourne Area Plan.
Updates
24 Aug 2014: This road scheme is not
developer-led, meaning that a government source
would need to fund it. Although it is included
in the Banbridge, Newry and Mourne Area Plan of
2013, it is not included in the 2007
Sub-Regional Transportation Plan, suggesting
that the scheme is not on the radar of
TransportNI (the new name for Roads Service).
For this reason, and because of its relatively
high cost, I think it is very unlikely to be
built in the foreseeable future. However,
keeping the route corridor free of development
makes sense in case it becomes a higher priority
in the future.
|
