Legal challenges against the new A5 could still be lodged in the weeks ahead, a roads expert has said after the Department for Infrastructure made the orders required for construction to begin.
The Executive approved the long-awaited upgrade to the road last month, 17 years after the A5 Western Transport Corridor project was first announced back in 2007.
The green light for the £1.2bn scheme finally came after a long process beset by funding concerns and legal challenges against upgrading the road to a dual carriageway between Derry and Aughnacloy in Co Tyrone.
The decision followed the publication of a Planning Appeals Commission report compiled after a public inquiry held last year.
The Irish government earlier this year committed €600 million to the new A5 through its Shared Island funding, as the road is the main route between the North West region and Dublin.
Work is now expected to begin on the first phase of the project in early 2025, which will focus on the stretch of the A5 between Strabane and Ballygawley - around 35 miles out of the total planned 53 miles of new dual carriageway.
The work has been welcomed by campaigners who sought the upgrade to reduce the dangers of the existing A5 to road users.
Since the 2007 announcement of the upgrade, almost 60 people have lost their lives on the A5.
In October, the Ulster Farmer’s Union said landowners affected by the construction of the A5 were mostly supportive of the project, indicating that further legal challenges were unlikely.
Three months earlier, a group behind previous legal challenges, the Alternative A5 Alliance, said the upgrade was a “vanity project” and an “irresponsible use of public money”.
Since ministers confirmed the go-ahead for the first phase, the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) has made the statutory orders to begin the process.
A direction order giving DfI permission to construct the road takes effect on November 13, with both a vesting order to pass ownership of required land to the department and compensate landowners, and a stopping-up order to close or relocate private access to public roads to facilitate the new A5 layout, both taking effect from November 25.
A spokesperson for the DfI said the Statutory Orders made in October “cover 55kms of new trunk road from the proposed Junction 8 (south of Strabane) to the proposed Junction 15 near Ballygawley including the westward extension of the existing A4 Dual Carriageway”.
Infrastructure researcher, commentator and blogger Wesley Johnson said the orders mean that in theory, work could formally begin by the end of this month, with land being fenced off.
However, he said he “wouldn’t be surprised at all” if legal challenges were submitted before November 25.
“I think there’s a reasonable chance of legal challenges just before one of the two dates in which the statutory orders take effect,” he told The Irish News.
“Objectors will have nothing to lose by this stage, so may try it. However, even if it causes further delays, I think they will struggle, and DfI will be able to win out in the end.
“Previous objections have been on environmental grounds, but in this first phase stretch of the road, there is only one of the four environmentally sensitive areas located on the route, Tully Bog.”
He added that even if another legal challenge was submitted, he expects work to be underway “by next spring”.
