The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a GBP 121.1 million loan for the design, construction and maintenance of improvements to a 120 km section of the A1, A4 and A5 trunk roads in Northern Ireland. The works will be carried out under the terms of a 30-year Concession Agreement between Amey Lagan Roads Limited and the Department for Regional Development. All elements of this road improvement scheme form part of the strategic pan-European transport corridors, the so-called Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T). As such, the project will serve to reinforce communication links between Northern Ireland and neighbouring EU Member States.
The improvement scheme comprises five sections of trunk road along the A1, the main route between Belfast and Dublin in the Republic of Ireland, and the A4/A5, providing access from Belfast to the south-west of Northern Ireland. The works will not only ensure capacity improvements on these routes, but will also reduce journey times, congestion and the potential for accidents along their length.
Developing European Regions
As well as contributing to the European Union goals of development and integration and the creation of an integrated European transport network, this road improvement programme is of significant strategic and economic importance for Northern Ireland. Following the return of power-sharing to the region on 8th May 2007, renewed impetus has been given to the Regional Development Strategy, endorsed by the first Northern Ireland Assembly in July 2002. Within the framework of this action plan, a Regional Transportation Strategy (RTS) was established to ensure the development and maintenance of transport routes until the end of 2015. The RTS has been supported by the publication of a Regional Strategic Transport Network Transport Plan in 2005 and the Investment Strategy for Northern Ireland in 2006.
With the signature of this loan, the EIB will have been involved in the financing of two of the priority road improvements pinpointed by the RTS; the first being the widening and improvement of parts of the M1 / Westlink and M2, which benefited from a GBP 65 million EIB loan in 2006.
In addition, this road scheme bears an impact on transport infrastructure across the whole island of Ireland. It represents the final link in the redeveloped transport chain between the Irish capitals of Dublin and Belfast. The EIB has been involved in the financing of all sections of the Dublin-Belfast corridor.
Background Note:
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union’s long-term lending bank, promoting European objectives. Support to the Trans-European Networks (TENs), the large infrastructure networks of transport and energy, is one of the EIB’s six operational priorities for its lending activities. The Bank’s commitment to the Trans-European Networks was recently reaffirmed in the document “A renewed policy for EIB lending to the transport sector”. Since their establishment in 1993, the Trans-European Networks have benefited from EIB loans in excess of EUR 93 billion, EUR 83 billion of which went to the transport sector.