Drumahoe ‘huge bottleneck’ worse than Dungiven, says Durkan, who urges A6 progress

The SDLP MLA quizzed Colin Woods, deputy secretary of the Department for Infrastructure’s (DfI) transport and road asset management (TRAM) group, on the road at a recent briefing of the Stormont Infrastructure Committee.

The A6 is almost complete but ends at Drumahoe. The Caw to Drumahoe section was originally due to be completed by 2024 but has had to be put on hold due to the dump.

“I wonder whether the completion of the A6 is anywhere on the radar. How can we move it up the agenda? As I say, great work has been done, but a huge bottleneck has been created at Drumahoe.

"It is actually worse than Dungiven ever was. It causes associated issues, not just for motorists but obviously for residents and the environment,” said the Foyle MLA.

Mr Woods said the A6 was a priority but referred to the need to remediate the huge dump on the banks of the Faughan before work on the road and a bridge over the river is started.

"You will be aware that the route for the final section goes near the Mobuoy waste site. At the minute, we are working with DAERA and we are part of the working group that is looking at that.

"Once we understand the plans to remediate that site, which we need before we can finalise proposals for the Minister's consideration of that road, we will be able to do that. We need to see what that is going to look like.

"Obviously, we are building alongside the River Faughan and we are going to build a bridge over it. It is a complex ecosystem, and we do not want to do anything that will make the situation worse or will interfere with the ability to remediate the site,” he said.

Mr. Durkan suggested proceeding with work either side of the dump.

“I fear that that [remediation of the site] could take a while, sadly. I wonder whether there is potential to look at the decoupling of Caw to Maydown and Maydown to Drumahoe, to skip the Mobuoy site until that is sorted,” he said.

A5 and A6 among priority roads with potential May 2024 start for Newbuildings stretch