A2 Greenisland

Our client was a local family based partnership which owned a significant amount of farmland to the north-west of the existing A2 carriageway between the Seapark and Station Road junctions. The entire Greenisland single carriageway section of the A2 stretching from Seapark to the University of Ulster entrance had become increasing congested at peak traffic flows and as a result Road Service proposed ‘dualling’ the single carriageway from Seapark along to the University entrance.

The difficulty with the proposal was that it would have required extensive vesting of grounds from the established residential properties along the affected route. Our client proposed a mitigation and alternative solution for approximately half of the affected route that would see the route divert from Seapark and travel inland re-joining the A2 at the Station Road junction. In effect, this would avoid almost half of the roadside properties being affected by the ‘dualling’ project.

We began working with Road Engineers from RPS in 2005 to design a proposal and engaged in community and political consultation in the local area. Our proposed route had many benefits for home owners who would avoid any road works, plus it was cheaper and quicker to deliver.

Issues Encountered

• Need for consultation with Greenisland Community & local elected representatives
• Proposal contrary to planning policy due to zoning of agricultural land
• Detailed pre-application discussions with DOE Planning

Our Involvement

We led the project team to design the road alignment solution and to consult with local stakeholders and statutory decision makers. DRD subsequently held its own detailed and extensive public consultation process on the entire road widening scheme (i.e. our proposal only concerned half of the route section which required widening).

DRD observed all the various statutory processes to enable the project to go ahead. Construction began with a sod cutting ceremony (above) on 21st March 2013 and work is due to finish in summer 2015.