A26 Glarryford to A44 Drones Road Dualling
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Scheme Update
30 March 2012
The Draft Orders exhibition panels have be added to the Public Consultation section and can be viewed by clicking here.
20 March 2012
The Department have published an Environmental Statement, a Notice of Intention to Make a Vesting Order, a Notice of Intention to Make a Direction Order and a Notice of Intention to Make a Stopping-Up of Private Accesses Order. These notices will be published in the Belfast Gazette on 23 March 2012, in the Belfast Telegraph, Newsletter and Irish News on 21 and 28 March 2012; and in the Ballymena Guardian, Antrim Guardian, Ballyclare Gazette, Larne Gazette, Ballymena Times, Coleraine Times, Antrim Times, Ballymoney Chronicle and Coleraine Chronicle during weeks ending Friday 23 March 2012 and Friday 30 March 2012.
To view a copy of the press release click here.
If you are directly affected by any of the Orders you should already have received a letter detailing this. If you haven't already received this letter, please contact Roads Service on 028703 40838.
An exhibition of the proposals will be held in the Tullyglass House Hotel, 178 Galgorm Road, Ballymena, Co Antrim BT42 1HJ, on 27 and 28 March 2012, from 2pm to 9pm. A team from Roads Service and their engineering and environmental consultants will be available on the day to deal with any queries.
All documents and maps relating to the Scheme may be inspected by any person, free of charge, at all reasonable hours during the period from 20 March 2012 to 11 May 2012 at the Roads Service offices of:
- Northern Division, County Hall, Castlerock Road, Coleraine;
- Northern Division, County Hall, Galgorm Road, Ballymena;
- Northern Division, Ballymoney & Moyle Section Office, Trillick House, 49 Queen Street, Ballymoney; and
- Headquarters, Room 2-13, Clarence Court, 10-18 Adelaide Street, Belfast.
Alternatively, an electronic version of the Environmental Statement (Non Technical Summary) is available to view here.
During this period, further information relating to the proposals or a CD copy of the Environmental Statement may be obtained free of charge from Roads Service - Northern Division, County Hall, Castlerock Road, Coleraine or by click here.
Any person who wishes to express an opinion on the Environmental Statement or to object to the making of any of the above Orders must, on or before 11 May 2012, write to the Divisional Roads Manager, Department for Regional Development, Roads Service – Northern Division, County Hall, Castlerock Road, Coleraine BT51 3HS, stating their opinion on the Environmental Statement and/or the grounds of their objection to the proposed Orders. The Department will take into consideration any representations made before deciding whether or not to proceed with the project with or without modifications.
Information you provide in your response, including personal information, could be published or disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). For further details on confidentiality and FOIA please refer to http://www.ico.gov.uk
October 2011
Further documents have been added to the scheme documents page. To view these click here.
August 2008
On the 11 August 2008 the Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy MLA, announced the ‘preferred route’ for the A26 Dualling between Glarryford and the A44 Drones Road junction.
The preferred route has been confirmed as an on-line improvement of the existing single carriageway road to dual carriageway, previously named the 'Blue Route' (Option 3) at the public consultation event held in June 2007. Download the preferred route leaflet (707kb) 
.
Scheme Background
The A26 is part of the Northern Key Transport Corridor that links Belfast to Antrim, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Coleraine, Limavady and Londonderry.
The section of the A26 under consideration is one of several schemes that have been identified for the northern corridor in the Regional Strategic Transport Network Transport Plan 2015 (RSTN TP) and is included in the Investment Delivery Plan (IDP) for Roads. Roads Service and their Consultant partner ‘Arup’ are working together to deliver the scheme.
The proposed scheme consists of the provision of 7km of dual carriageway between Glarryford and the A44 Drones Road (the Ballycastle Fork). This section is currently a single 2-way carriageway which carries 18,000 vehicles per day. The improvement is predominately online with the section adjacent to the frossess trees going marginally off line.
Scheme Proposals
To consider all available options a scheme assessment is being carried out. This is a three stage procedure, which compares various options based on the government’s five key transport objectives of environment, safety, economy, integration and accessibility. This begins with an examination of broadly defined routes, progressing through the selection of a ‘preferred route’ to detailed environmental assessment and design.
The following lists briefly the assessment process to-date:
- A Stage 1 ‘Preliminary Options’ assessment of twelve viable routes was carried out. This resulted in five routes (namely Orange, Blue, yellow, Green and Red) being taken forward to Stage 2. Download the Stage 1 assessment reports.
- A Stage 2 ‘Preferred Route’ assessment involved a more detailed assessment including surveys to identify the key effects and factors to be taken into account when selecting and comparing the five Route Options. This resulted in the blue (on-line improvement) Route Option progressing to Stage 3 as the ‘preferred route’. Download the Stage 2 Preferred Route Leaflet (707kb) .
- A Stage 3 assessment is being carried out at present. This involves further design development of the preferred route. This stage of assessment requires preparation of an Environmental Statement, production of a Draft Direction Order and Draft Vesting Order (Statutory Procedures).
