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Toome Bypass

Roads

Tuesday, 22 September 2009

Toome Bypass

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The Toome Bypass was constructed in 2005 by FP McCann at the request on DRD Road Service. Costing £18million, the bypass cut journey times between Belfast and Londonderry by up to 15 minutes and removed approximately 22,000 vehicles per day from the streets of Toome.

A prominent feature is ‘The Toome Bridge’. Now a landmark structure in Northern Ireland, the 99 metre span bowstring bridge arches over the Lower River Bann.

The Bypass was secured using a design and build model which ensured that any savings or over that any savings or overspend on the agreed target cost were shared between Road Service NI and the Contractor. This encouraged ‘value’ engineering and allowed the contractor to bring considerable expertise to the project to help solve engineering challenges.

When asked about the project, Sinn Fein MLA, Mitchell McLaughlin said, “Since the opening of the Toome bypass in 2004 this project has undoubtedly resolved traffic congestion problems that were inflicted on the village of Toome and has reduced travel times for people travelling into Belfast along the M2 motorway. In the near future the project will also clearly benefit from the proposed dualling of the road from Castledawson through to the M2.”

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The Toome bypass has saved over 6.5 million hrs of vehicle emissions, fossil fuels and residential accidents so far. Its not even begun to bloom yet when the 18000 indiginoius trees mature by about 2023A.D it will be a stunning vision of a northern Irelands vision and forethought. Did I mention the circa 300years of travel time saved so far by ordinary people and the economy - no contest - both hands up with my vote

Posted by Heidi | 27.09.09, 17:23 GMT

Super project, sterling bridge, clean environment for the residents of Toome, efficient use of tax spend and happy motoring; well done DRD Road Service and FP McCann

Posted by Mike Jones | 25.09.09, 14:45 GMT

Stephen
This is about Northern Ireland, not the rest of Europe. Can everyone not enjoy and admire the new bridge which was the first of it's kind in the Uk. The amount of planning and innovation used to complete this project was second to none, taking in to consideration the environment and all the traffic management involved to deal with the 22,000 cars per day that travelled and was completed with minium disruption and before it's deadline. You are more interested in standing admiring construction as opposed to evalutaing its social and econmic benefits not forgetting the engineering challenges that were overcome to ensure satisfactory completion of the project. Maybe you should take up bird watching, Great spot standing on the Toome Bridge :-)

Posted by Scrahead | 24.09.09, 12:24 GMT

I understand that the by-pass unearted some interesting local archeology which otherwise might have been lost. I believe the original blueprint plans to the by-pass itself were unearted during the dig. One key archeological discovery not forgotten in the loacl mid-Ulster community is the red miria motor vehicle which has been fully restored and can now be seen driving through the by-pass heading for far a field on any given night.

Posted by James McCloy | 24.09.09, 12:23 GMT

Catch yourself on Stephen

Posted by Local Farmer | 24.09.09, 12:10 GMT

I understand that Toome bypass has improved the lives of the people living in this area however I do not think it is worthy of winning this award.
Roads like the bypass are everywhere in Europe and they do not receive awards.
This reward should be awarded to a beautiful piece of construction that everyone can enjoy and admire something that has character not a piece of infrastructure, which should be standard everywhere in Northern Ireland.

Posted by Stephen | 23.09.09, 17:10 GMT