Roads for prosperity alive and well in Murphy’s land

Northern Ireland is in the midst of a road programme that is unprecedented in the country’s recent history. Regional development minister Conor Murphy tells Andrew Forster that better roads are vital to the North’s economic prosperity

Andrew Forster

28 August 2009

Minister for regional development Conor Murphy

The Westlink in Belfast connects the M1 to the M2 and M3. A PPP project to widen the road and grade separate junctions was completed in March.

Northern Ireland Railways replaced the majority of its diesel trains in 2004-05. In March this year Conor Murphy announced a £115m order for a further 20 trains to replace the remaining older vehicles and increase capacity. The Metro and Ulsterbus fleets have also benefitted from new investment. Tendering for a further 200 new buses is due to start by 31 March 2010.

Northern Ireland’s road network is undergoing a rapid modernisation as projects are brought forward to dual, widen and build bypasses on the key inter-urban routes. Motorists are already benefitting from a number of improvements but much more is still to come. Northern Ireland’s ten-year investment strategy (2008/09-2017/18) sets an indicative budget of £3.1bn for Roads Service, the executive agency of the Department for Regional Development that manages the entire 25,000km...