‘Five-year wait’ until completion of bypass

‘Five-year wait’ until completion of bypass

17 August 2022

BALLYNAHINCH’S eagerly-awaited £35m pound bypass may not be completed until 2027, it has emerged.

Stormont infrastructure minister John O’Dowd has revealed that it will be between three and five years before the scheme to link the Belfast and Newcastle roads is complete. He confirmed the news in a letter to South Down MLA Colin McGrath.

It was hoped that work on the multi-million-pound scheme would have started by now after Mr O’Dowd’s predecessor Nicola Mallon issued a direction order for the bypass.

The proposal is included in a list of strategic and flagship road improvement schemes alongside Newry’s proposed southern relief road, bypasses in Enniskillen and Cookstown and junction improvements along the A1.

Designed to alleviate chronic town centre congestion in Ballynahinch and along the main approach roads to the town, major new roundabouts are proposed at the Belfast Road junction with the Saintfield Road and at the Newcastle Road junction with the Downpatrick Road, with a new bridge constructed over the Moss Road. 

Overtaking lanes stretching almost 900 metres are proposed at either end of the bypass where the major new roundabouts are to be constructed, with the scheme also including a shared footpath and cycle lane.

The bypass is the single biggest road scheme ever proposed for the district with suggestions that it will take at least 18 months to construct, with roads officials insisting that the scheme will reduce journey times and improve road safety. 

Mr McGrath said the detail in the roads minister’s letter indicates that he is “facing the realities of delivering the much-needed bypass which cannot be used as a political football any more”.

He said he wrote to Mr O’Dowd seeking a progress report on the Ballynahinch scheme.

“I was concerned that with the ongoing DUP boycott of the political institutions, and the inability of the finance minister to produce a full budget, would delay the Ballynahinch  project further,” he said.

“Mr O’Dowd has outlined for me that it will take at the absolute least, another three to five years before the bypass scheme is complete.”

Mr McGrath has been informed that a draft business case for the bypass has been prepared but this cannot be approved until there is “certainty of timescales” which will depend on how much funding finance minister Conor Murphy is prepared to make available.  

“Once that hurdle is cleared, it will take at least 18 months to move from procurement, finalisation of the business case and approval to begin construction. It will then take another 18 months to complete construction,” the MLA continued.

“This is the reality and complexity of delivering this scheme and the constraints under which ministers are operating.”

Mr McGrath said that throughout Nichola Mallon’s tenure as infrastructure minister, Sinn Fein South Down MP Chris Hazzard blamed her for delaying the project. 

“With confirmation from the MP’s party colleague that the bypass scheme will take at the very least another three to five years, I can only anticipate that he will be equally vocal in his frustration with Mr O’Dowd,” he said.

Mr McGrath said Sinn Fein had hoped that following the Assembly election, “the local community can have a minister in place who recognises the value of the Ballynahinch bypass and finally begins construction.” 

He added: “It begs the question whether the new infrastructure minister will be held to the same standard.”