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The N13 and N15 form two of the main trunk roads in the east of County Donegal. The N15 starts from Strabane/Lifford and and heads south-west via Donegal town and Ballyshannon towards Sligo. At Stranorlar it is met by the N13 which begins near Derry, then via Letterkenny and heads south. Stranorlar, and its neighbour, Ballybofey, (with a total population of just under 5000 people) form the two biggest bottlenecks on the road. This scheme would see a dual-carriageway (type 2) bypass built around the north/west of the twin towns, with a new single-carriageway road link connecting the bypass to the N15 towards Lifford/Strabane. A second link road would connect the centre of the bypass to the R252 Glenfin Road and into the Ballybofey. The map below shows the proposed route as of 2020 (click to expand). Sold black is dual-, and dashed is single-carriagerway. A more detailed design can be seen here.

The road would be dualbuilt to a high quality -carriageway standard, with no intermediate junctions on the level, and two grade-separated junctions. It will include a major bridge over the River Finn. The scheme is one element of three schemes being taken forward together as a single project, the other two being the N56/N13 Letterkenny to Manorcunningham upgrades and N14 Manorcunningham to A5 at Lifford/Strabane.

Updates

16 Aug 2024: With thanks to a correspondent who wrote to clarify that the bypass is going to be a dual-carriageway, not a single-carriageway as I had said initially. The associated link roads, including the one connecting the bypass to the N15 east of Stranorlar, will be single-carriageway. Despite the announcement of approval for the scheme in July (see below), the official web site on the scheme hasn't been updated for about three years.

26 Jul 2024: The Irish Cabinet yesterday finally approved this scheme, later than anticipated in the previous update. The scheme – and the two other Donegal TEN-T schemes which have been approved too – will now move to the planning and procurement processes. Subject to all going to plan with these processes, construction is anticipated to get underway in 2028, i.e. four years from now. The government has also said that it will be revising the cost estimates in due course, as the current estimate of €150-180m dates from 2022 and the rate of construction inflation has been quite high in the past few years. With thanks to Paul McCloskey for giving me the heads up about this decision.

30 Aug 2023: First point to make is that this is my first attempt to follow a scheme outside Northern Ireland, so if I have made any basic errors please be gentle and let me know roads at wesleyjohnston.com! At this stage the scheme has a detailed design (see here) but construction is unlikely to begin before 2026. The next couple of years will need to see the scheme taken through the process to obtain planning permission. The scheme also needs a business case signed off, which is expected sometime this year. The current cost estimate is €150-180m at 2022 prices but this is likely to rise due to the recent surge in construction inflation. A reminder that the excellent JP Dowling over at Irish Motorway Info maintains information on new roads across the whole of the Republic.