£5.1M road scheme investment in Ballymoney

Speaking ahead of last Monday’s meeting at Riada House between the Department for Regional Development (DRD) and Ballymoney Borough Council, Danny Kennedy said: “My Department has invested over £135million in structural maintenance, improving many miles of road infrastructure across Northern Ireland in the last financial year.

“Despite ever increasing demands on budgets, DRD invested over £5.1million in delivering a comprehensive range of road schemes and maintenance work in the Ballymoney area.

“DRD is using its available resources highly effectively and continues to deliver quality public services in the Ballymoney area and across Northern Ireland.”

The Minister provided an update on the £65million A26 dualling between Glarryford and the A44 (Drones Road) junction. “Following my announcement to proceed and publication of the Statutory Orders in November 2013, my Department has been progressing with the procurement of the A26 dualling scheme. Following a successful tender award it is anticipated that construction could commence in the later part of this year.

“To enable the works to progress quickly following a successful tender award my Department has recently completed advanced site clearance works and the erection of a temporary fence along the site boundary. As well as these works, archaeological investigations are currently ongoing and will be completed later this month.”

To date a number of archaeological sites have been found. One of these sites is a man-made underground chamber adjacent to the Killagan Road junction, which dates approximately between 600 and 1000AD.

Highlighting resurfacing schemes, the Minister said: “Road users in the Ballymoney area I am sure have quickly realised the benefits of the investment by the Department with the completion of a number of significant lengths of carriageway resurfacing at a total cost of £1.75million, which included A26 Frosses Road, B16 Garryduff Road, B62 Finvoy Road, B62 Ballybogey Road and B15 Gracehill Road. In addition over 5.5kilometres of footway was also resurfaced at a cost of £175,000.”

Speaking at the meeting Principal Engineer, Gary Quinn, outlined some of the other significant areas of work completed by the Division.

These included the erection of safety barrier on the Killagan Road at Drumadoon Bridge and the hard landscaping of the southern traffic island on the A26 Frosses Road at Dunloy crossroads to enhance the visibility for southbound traffic on the A26 turning right towards Dunloy. A footway scheme in Macfin which connects the housing to the play park and road safety measures have been put in place at the junction of the Ballyrashane Road and the Ballybogey Road to address high speed approaches into this junction, consisting of extending the 40-mph speed limit, new traffic signs, central hatched road markings and the application of high friction surfacing.

In addition, School Safety Zone signing has been upgraded at Garryduff Primary School, Knockahollet Primary School and Carrowreagh Primary School.

To find out more about road improvements and the work of the Department for Regional Development visit website the DRD Websiteexternal link.