Derry's gridlocked road infrastructure needs urgently addressed - View from the Foyle

There’s no doubt the critical arteries into and through our city are under stress. We have a bigger population, more visitors and trade and of course more cars.

Our roads really were not built for this volume of vehicles, but it’s also caused in what appears a lack of coordination, maybe even appreciation, from those tasked with building and managing this critical network (remember that no one seemed to know or care that the largest annual sporting event in the North, the Foyle Cup, was on).

On Friday, it took me almost 90 minutes to get from Culmore to Creggan and back, caused by lanes being closed on the Foyle and Craigavon Bridges and three guys sitting in vans whilst two stared into a hole on Strand Road.

Add the daily congestion on Crescent Link and the Caw Roundabout turning into a temporary car park. You could walk across the roofs of cars from Altnagelvin to Drumahoe every teatime having done the same at breakfast on the A6 into the village. Or the tinkering with the lights at the Cityside end of the Foyle Bridge, which leaves vehicles stranded in the middle of the roundabout blocking traffic.

All routes from every point of the compass into the city, on both sides of the river are frequently blocked.

So, what’s the plan? Take the Buncrana Road as an example. As a schoolchild, each day I expected to see the road builders at Pennyburn starting their work. Forty years later, the department has told our Council that all the plans previously agreed won’t be moving forward until it concludes yet another plan and consultation. A piece of work which appears to already be late.

The city doesn’t have time to wait, not least because Christmas is so important to traders, seeing them through to Easter. They need better management, now.

But we’re also a city on the rise. It’s delivery not dithering that’s needed. Construction not congestion. A city on the move needs this critical infrastructure to enable it to move.