Bridgend dual carriageway by-pass advances as Derry side remains on hold
Council seeks valuation experts for compulsory purchase process on dual carriageway that will run from Bridgend to the Border
Plans for the Bridgend dual carriageway have moved into a new phase, with Donegal County Council beginning the process of acquiring the land needed for the project.
The council has published a tender seeking specialist land and property valuation services to support compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) for the scheme, which it is delivering on behalf of Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII).
The contract, advertised in the European Union’s Official Journal this week, covers valuation work for Phases 3, 4 and 5 of the N13 Bridgend to County Boundary Route Improvement Project.
The successful consultant will carry out valuations to support land acquisition and compensation negotiations as the scheme progresses through TII's planning process.
Approximately 25 landowners in the Bridgend area are expected to be affected by the CPOs.
The consultancy contract is expected to run for 60 months, suggesting the council is allowing up to 2031 to complete the land acquisition process.
Interested firms have until 29 July to make their submission to the Government's eTenders portal.
Public consultation on the preferred route has been ongoing since March 2022 and the new road will provide a 1.2km dual carriageway bypass of Bridgend, with roundabouts at either end of the route. A new roundabout will be built close to the derelict hotel at the Border, while the existing roundabout in Bridgend will be removed, and a new one constructed a few hundred metres further south along the N13 towards Letterkenny.
The project includes new roads and layouts, including slip roads and bridges, as well as the dual carriageway and the realignment of existing roads and junctions.
The N13 through Bridgend carries more than 19,000 vehicles every day, making it the second busiest border crossing on the island, and this road project forms part of the European TEN-T comprehensive transport network.
According to the latest project update published in May, the scheme remains in Phase 3 – Design and Environmental Evaluation. Phase 4 covers legal and planning, and Phase 5 covers tenders and procurement ahead of construction.
Alignment work is continuing, while geotechnical investigations have been completed. Archaeological, ecological and traffic surveys are also progressing or have been completed as the preliminary design is refined.
The project received a further €1.1 million allocation earlier this year as part of the Government's 2026 national roads programme.
The Bridgend scheme was originally intended to connect with a proposed dual-carriageway upgrade of Derry’s A2 Buncrana Road between Coshquin and Pennyburn. However, while the Donegal project continues to move through the planning process, the Buncrana Road upgrade, which was intended to alleviate serious congestion on the main route into the city from Donegal, has been mothballed.
The 4.3km Buncrana Road upgrade, first proposed in 2008, was paused indefinitely by Stormont's cash-strapped Department for Infrastructure in August 2023 due to a combination of budget pressures and the implications of the North's Climate Change Act.
The same legislation has also been central to legal challenges that have delayed construction of the A5 dual carriageway between Derry and Aughnacloy and onwards to Dublin. The North's Court of Appeal hearing into the A5 challenge concluded in June, with a ruling some months away.
Meanwhile, work continues on a number of other TEN-T road projects in Donegal, with compulsory purchase processes advancing on 100km of planned new roads between Letterkenny, Lifford and Ballybofey.