Upgrading the Frosses: a safer journey north
Work on the Frosses Road upgrade should start next year with a dual carriageway to be in place by late 2016.
The typical drive to the North Coast is normally lengthened by the journey along the A26 between Ballymena and Ballymoney. Traffic cautiously slows down as the bottleneck approaches and, more seriously, it has gained the reputation of being one of the province’s worst accident blackspots.
Around 20 fatal collisions have occurred here over the last 20 years. Each day, the road carries 18,000 vehicles.
The A26 is especially narrow between the Frosses trees – a collection of Scots pines planted in 1839 to prevent subsidence. A comprehensive summary of the road’s history is provided by the transport historian Wesley Johnston at www.wesleyjohnston.com/roads
In 1964, the Northern Ireland Government announced plans to build the M2 all the way from Belfast to Coleraine. The Troubles stalled the development and limited the M2 to Belfast-Antrim and a bypass around Ballymena.
Traffic levels and speeds continued to build up but the road remained the same. The Roads Service proposed the dualling of the Frosses Road in 2005, at a cost of £23 million, and a preferred route was announced in August 2008.
This would follow the current road with a bypass around the trees, three grade-separated junctions and a bridge over a river. The project would result in 7km of dual carriageway between Glarryford and the A44 Drones Road, known locally as the Ballycastle Fork.
Costs had increased to £52 million two years later and, at that point, the Road Service envisaged the work taking place between 2013 and 2018.
The work could have therefore started by now if the planning application had proceeded as intended. However, 20 residents objected as the route crossed their land and a public inquiry took place in November 2012. After that point, the Roads Service published a more precise costing (£61 million). On 21 October, the Executive formally approved the scheme for construction.
Work is to start in late 2014, subject to the outcome of the public inquiry, and is expected to finish in late 2016.
Transport Minister Danny Kennedy is considering the public inquiry report, which is to be published shortly. There is strong public and political pressure for the scheme to go ahead.
Kennedy remarked: “I have supported calls for this project to be brought forward and am fully aware of the benefits it will bring to the local economy and the public.”
Sinn Féin MLA Daithí McKay has explained that it is needed “not only for road safety but because it would benefit the local economy and tourism and decrease travel times for people from Ballymoney and Ballycastle.”
