40% of rail upgrade costs spent on A5 consultants

Transport Minister Danny Kennedy revealed that at the end of August 2011 approximately £38 million had been spent on development of the A5 project.

“This total includes £29.8 million on the cost of professional services provided by project consultants and £2.8 million on the cost of contractors’ design advice,” he stated.

Translink has advised that the projected costs for the rail upgrade as detailed in the 2010 Economic Appraisal is £75,744,656.

The Minister also stated he was aware the construction of the new Londonderry to Aughnacloy road would impact on certain landowners.

Consequently Roads Service had undertaken discussions with all landowners with the objective of mitigating the impact of the road as far as is reasonably practicable.

“Typical mitigation measures include the provision of structures to access severed lands, low noise surfacing to reduce noise impacts on adjacent property and, where appropriate, the use of temporary access agreements to allow shorter term control of land that may be required temporarily to facilitate construction of the works,” he stated.

“Where it is not possible to fully mitigate the impacts of the project, compensation is offered, which is assessed independently by the Department of Finance and Personnel’s Land and Property Service,” he added.