‘Light at the end of the tunnel’ – Cllr

A MAJOR road infrastructure project in Donegal – the biggest to date – is expected to be submitted for planning approval in January 2026.

Donegal County Councillors in attendance at Friday’s special plenary council meeting were given a detailed update on the progress of the long-awaited Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).

They were told by council officials that the major road infrastructure project is expected to be submitted for planning approval in January 2026, which would also include the formal notification of Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPO) to close to 500 property owners.

The Donegal TEN-T Project proposes targeted improvements on three sections of the national road network.

Councillors also heard that the estimated five years of works could start in 2028, with a completion date of 2032.

In the presentation, the council officials detailed how the project would be realised, which included detailed maps of the upgraded road networks. This included the proposed bridge across the River Swilly, which is a major part of the project.

Ms Aine McHugh, executive engineer from the council’s Roads Department, highlighted the need for the project, by outlining issues surrounding connectivity and lack of infrastructure and investment that currently face the county.

“Clearly you can see the large void that exists in our current infrastructure,” she said.

“We must rely on a legacy that is unfit for purpose for the movement of people and goods to the north west.”

The first section of the TEN-T project is the proposed by-pass of the twin-towns, Ms McHugh described the current road as the “first bottleneck encounter” when travelling into the county from the south.

The most recent figures show over 14,000 vehicles passing through Ballybofey and Stranorlar, but with the by-pass that figure reduces to just over 3,000 vehicles.

Travelling 10km north is the second section of the project from Letterkenny to Manorcunningham.

Recent figures show close to 40,000 vehicles currently use the four-lane road coming into the town. With the proposed project this number would almost half, Ms McHugh explained.

The upgrades will provide “strategic relief” and “address safety and legacy road issues” .

The third section is the Manorcunningham to Lifford section of the project, which is described as “the gateway into the north west” from the North and Dublin.

The TEN-T project would bring the “incredibly poor section of road” up to European standards, said Ms McHugh.

“We have local and regional roads in the county that are of higher standard,” she added.

“With a project of this size and the scale of the work described there is obviously a lot of land needed and a lot of people affected by it,” said Mr Brian Reid, Executive Engineer with the council, who addressed the chamber with the details of the Compulsory Purchase Order and the consultation process to date.

Just under 1,500 acres are to be acquired and a total of 475 people will be affected.

“A lot of those people are affected in a very significant way, so consultation and engagement with these people and the wider public has been an integral part of the project since the start,” Mr Reid added.

All affected landowners have been informed of the scheme and to date, the council have had over 800 individual meetings with affected landowners. This includes meetings with an agricultural specialist to discuss the impact on any farms.

Also addressing the councillors was senior engineer, Damian McDermott, who explained that the estimated cost of the TEN-T project would be between €780 and €915 million

Mr McDermott also offered insight into the next steps to be taken in regards to policy, legislation and judicial review of the project that they are addressing.

This includes addressing the implications of the recent A5 decision, which despite being in a different jurisdiction had “knock on affects”. In June, Northern Ireland’s High Court quashed a decision by the Department of Infrastructure to proceed with the first phase of the A5 dual carriageway project.

“Our goal is not to publish but to deliver the scheme and we have to cross every hurdle that we come across…”

He stressed this is about “ensuring they have the best foot forward going into the planning process”.

He said the “robust” requirements were needed to reach the final stages of delivery ahead of an expected submission for planning approval in January 2026, which would also include the formal notification of CPO to all property owners .

If approved, the project will be commenced and a contractor will be appointed in 2027.

The main construction of the project, which is estimated to take five years, has a target start date of 2028 and an estimated completion of 2032.

Cllr Ciaran Brogan praised the team involved in the project on their time and effort, and “for dotting every I and crossing every T”.

“I would have preferred to see us heading sooner into this process but I fully respect the work that’s ongoing, considering what we seen with the A5 project,” he added.

Cllr Donal Coyle spoke of the landowners and homeowners who will be impacted and how there is “light at the end of the tunnel for them”.