N13/N15 - Ballybofey/Stranorlar bypass [preferred route published; design underway]

I thought that the Greens are in favour of small bypasses - it's just long motorways that they don't like? And 8km is definitely a small bypass and definitely the minimum of what's needed here.

A decade ago, roads were being canned because of externally-imposed fiscal austerity. Now roads are being canned because of self-imposed climate austerity, with seemingly zero lessons learned on the importance of investing in connectivity during the last decade.

Just build the darn road. If making it easier/safer for rural people and businesses to get around by car is now sufficient reason to block a road, it's hard to see any bypass (or any other road project) ever progressing to construction. This religious obsession with avoiding any measure which could make driving even slightly easier (even in rural areas) is so short-sighted, misguided, and mean-spirited. It cannot be allowed to drive government policy in this country.

There's a project underway to upgrade the stretch of N4 you mentioned to a 2+2 dual carriageway. See the "N4 Mullingar to Rooskey" thread here, or the public consultation page: N4 Mullingar to Longford (Roosky) Project Public Consultation

Whatever about the other two, I can't see how a case can be made for spending €150m-€180m bypassing Ballybofey/Stranorlar, nevermind with a whack of inflation on top of that.

Don't need to live there to know that traffic levels are well within single carriageway recommended levels and similar to where SC has been used elsewhere. Look at Moycullen with more traffic and the cost of its bypass. I doubt the required funding will ever to approved for building a dual carriageway grade separated bypass of these towns.

Your first post bemoaned spending on a bypass, then its a dual carriageway. Which is it you are opposed to?

The bypass is massively needed as this is a huge choke point on all journeys north and south of Donegal. No national primary road in this day and age should involve driving through a main street full of shops, certainly not one as busy as the N15.

The twin towns bypass should be the most urgent of all those projects for Donegal CC, Letterkenny to Manor is the least urgent of the three.

I didn't bemoan anything, what I said was "I can't see how a case can be made for spending €150m-€180m bypassing Ballybofey/Stranorlar". The cost now appears to be even higher. I think it will strugglebig time to get past the PSC.

As 2 towns will be bypassed the appropriate funding would be more than value for money. A bit like a BOGOF 😎

No, it was a long time before that (although that won't stop posters here from linking everything they don't like to the GP). The PSC was brought in to preventlarge capital expenditure based on grand notions despite there being no justifiable business case, that has nothing to do with the GP.

When the 90km of N15 between Sligo and Ballybofey is upgraded, those upgrades will most likely be 2+2 as well. There's already a clear pattern of bumping upgrades on national primary roads to 2+2, and the only exceptions have been stretches with extremely low traffic figures (<5000 AADT).

What's being done on Moycullen bypass is irrelevant, as that is part of the secondary road network, and the criteria for secondary routes are different. Also, the HGV share on N13/N15 is pretty high, at around 7%, and that adds more weight to the justification for a dual carriageway. The choice of dual carriageway over single isn’t made so that car-drivers can go faster, it’s to allow heavy goods traffic to safely coexist with passenger cars.

For roads with around 10,000 AADT, the cost difference between Wide Single carriageway and a 2+2 is not that big. To get a single carriageway to those traffic levels, you need remove minor junctions and grade separate or roundabout the rest. Once that cost is there, 2+2 is just the middle barrier and extra road width on top.

I never claimed the existence of any policy.

I simply made an observation that recent National Primary projects have been bumped up from single carriageway to 2+2 at lower levels of traffic than some here would think deserve it. e.g., N2 from Monaghan to NI Border will be 2+2, with AADT of just 4,000 or so (lower than any of the N13/N15 stretches). The reason in that case was that N2 is part of a longer strategic corridor connecting Donegal with the rest of the Republic (and also connecting Derry and the western counties of NI with the Republic), just as N13/15 are.

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As someone who lives in the twin towns and from speaking to others I can confirm the bypass is the priority now and has been for nearly 50 years. We are not interested in all this chat about single and dual carriageway from Ballybofey to Sligo.

I worked in the planning dept of Donegal County Council in the 70's and lands were zoned in the development plan at that time to cater for a bypass so we have been waiting a considerable time for this.

County council seem to be very behind schedule on numerous projects under their remit - when DCC give a date I would add 6months on to it at least

This part is not accurate. Irelands implementation of road tax scheme is called Motor Tax, and liability for it is based firstly on whether or not a motor vehicle is on the road. (Being used in a public place I think is term)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_tax#Ireland

We are coming up on 7 years since the latest scheme began. Does anyone have any idea when it might be completed? It would be great for the towns and for those who drive thought that part of Donegal regularly.

I worked in Donegal County Council's planning office for several years way back in the mid to late 70's and they had a route reserved in those days for a bypass of the twin towns. Sparse details of same were contained in both the county development plan and the development plan for Ballybofey / Stranorlar. It wasn't much more than a line on a map to the North of the town's which isn't far off the current proposed route but lots of people were refused planning permission in the following years because of it.

Anyhow the point of the post is to highlight the length of time it has been taking to get the project off the ground...no pun intended