A26 (Hansard, 28 April 2004)

§ Mr. Spellar

The Chief Executive of Roads Service (Dr. Malcolm McKibbin) has been asked to write to the hon. Gentleman in response to this question.

Letter from Dr. Malcolm McKibbin to Mr. Gregory Campbell, dated 26 April 2004:

You recently asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland a Parliamentary Question about what plans he has to dual the A26 between Ballymoney and Coleraine; and what assessment he has made of recent figures on relevant traffic volumes. I have been asked to reply as these issues fall within my responsibility as Chief Executive of Roads Service.

Roads Service currently has no plans to dual the A26 between Ballymoney and Coleraine. Information available from the Department for Transport in Great Britain concludes that a single carriageway trunk road will operate satisfactorily with traffic flows of up to 18,000 vehicles per day (vpd), with a maximum flow capacity of approximately 22,000 vpd. You will be aware from my letter dated 5 April 2004, in response to your recent Parliamentary Question that traffic volumes for the A26 Ballymoney By-pass and the A26 Ballymoney to Coleraine fall below the 18,000 threshold.

You will recall that during the preparation of the Major Works 10-Year Forward Planning Schedule (FPS), Roads Service wrote to all MPs, MEPs, MLAs and Councils, in October 2001, enclosing a list of road schemes that Roads Service intended to appraise for possible inclusion in the schedule. Priority was to be given to the Key Transport Corridors. Public representatives were asked to identiiy and justify any further schemes that they felt should be included in the list for appraisal.

A scheme to dual the A26 from Glarryford to its A44 Ballycastle junction was included in the list however no reference was made to the dualling of the section between Ballymoney and Coleraine and no submissions in support of this scheme were received during this consultation exercise. Coleraine Borough Council did submit a request for the provision of additional overtaking opportunities on the A26 between the A44 Ballycastle junction and Coleraine and a scheme to provide these at three locations on the A26 between the junction with A44 and Ballymoney is included in the Emerging Regional Strategic Transport Network Transport Plan.

I would reiterate the importance that Roads Service attaches to the A26 route, having designated it as a Key Transport Corridor within the Regional Development Strategy. Approximately £1.2 million has been spent over the past three years on the A26 between the A44 Ballycastle junction and Coleraine, introducing safety features including differential acceleration lanes, climbing lanes, speed limits, improved road markings and junction improvements. You will appreciate however, that public resources available for the roads programme are limited and that improvements must therefore be prioritised to ensure optimum value for money. Funding is finite and the number of worthwhile schemes competing for inclusion in the roads programme far exceeds the resources available to Roads Service for major schemes. It is, therefore, essential that we target the funding available on the most beneficial schemes for the country as a whole.

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Unfortunately, there are many major schemes with higher priority than the dualling of the A26 from Ballymoney to Coleraine, and it is anticipated that future improvements in the medium term are likely to include the provision of further overtaking opportunity schemes, such as climbing lanes or widened carriageway (2+1) schemes.

I hope this information is helpful.