Infrastructure – Slugger O'Toole

Flooding is our canary in the coal mine for the impact of climate change, says Sinéad McLaughlin

Paul Gosling on August 20, 2021, 9:05 am

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Belfast, Derry, Strabane and much of Ireland have suffered severe flooding problems in recent days and weeks. We know this will get even worse – with flooding become more intensive and more frequent. A new report says that climate change will be a particular problem for the West of Ireland, with even higher rainfall, leading to even more flooding. These are not problems we can ignore. I am discussing with the insurance industry how to ensure homeowners, tenants and businesses get the …

Belfast Rapid Transit (Glider) Phase 2 announced

Brendan Heading on August 1, 2021, 1:25 pm

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This week, Minister for Infrastructure Nichola Mallon launched the public consultation for Phase 2 of the Belfast Rapid Transit (Glider) system. I think this is a welcome development and will improve connectivity, access to and uptake of public transport in the city. I remember when Glider was first launched on the east/west route a few years ago. Before it got off the ground, it was fashionable to dump on it (a common pattern for public transport projects on this island). …

Would you prefer faster roads or faster broadband?

Brian O'Neill on May 7, 2020, 11:29 am

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How are you getting on with the great work from home experiment? I have worked from home for most of my career so it is nothing new for me but I realise it will be a novelty for most of you. Your experience will vary greatly depending on if you have young kids or not. With our 4-year-old, I find it is next to impossible to get any work done while homeschooling and childminding. Whatever teachers get paid they should …

Coronavirus: A chance to reshape our roads for the future…

Soapbox on April 25, 2020, 10:33 am

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Jonathan Hobbs is a cycling campaigner from Belfast The coronavirus pandemic has affected life in Northern Ireland in unprecedented ways. Thousands have becoming infected and hundreds have died, devastating families and communities. Lockdown has changed how go about daily business in ways that we would have thought unbelievable at the start of 2020. One of the very few positives to emerge has been the general outdoor environment, especially in my city Belfast. Vehicle traffic is almost non-existent compared to normal. …

High speed rail to the northwest would help alleviate Dublin’s housing crisis and Ireland’s severe regional inequality

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on March 1, 2020, 11:31 pm

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Among the problems facing Ireland in 2020, two of the most pressing are the housing crisis in Dublin and severe regional economic inequality. Far removed from Dublin or any of the prosperous regional hubs such as Limerick, Galway or Cork, incomes in the northwest of Ireland (on both sides of the border) are amongst the lowest on the island. By contrast, despite the buoyant jobs market in Dublin, housing in the capital has become extremely expensive in recent years, with …

Could Spanish “Superblocks” make Belfast Greener, Quieter and a Nicer Place to be?

Finn Purdy on August 30, 2017, 7:14 am

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So much of our modern city space is dedicated to cars, the needs of the automobile take priority in almost every city’s layout. This causes pedestrians and cyclists to be pushed to narrow pavements and cycles lanes, both having to navigate through traffic as they go. One alternative to this norm is the “Superblock” scheme currently being implemented across cities in Spain. You take an area of blocks and close off the inside to ‘through’ traffic i.e buses and big …

The £400m for Infrastructure in the Conservative-DUP agreement will only exacerbate Northern Ireland’s east-west divide

Steve Bradley on June 28, 2017, 4:32 pm

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Northern Ireland’s infrastructure has drawn the prize ticket from the £1bn of new money in the Conservative-DUP deal – securing £400m, or 40% of the entire fund. This has been greeted with criticism elsewhere in the UK, but can be justified on two grounds. Firstly – Northern Ireland arguably has the worst infrastructure of any region in the UK. Only significant external funding will reverse the decades-long under-investment that has caused that. Secondly – the situation is worse still within …

So what can we do with £400million for infrastructure projects?

Andy Boal on June 26, 2017, 11:39 pm

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With thanks to my good friend Wesley Johnston, whose inestimable website is the source for any intelligible figure I can find to help me write this article… I was at the official opening of the A26 two weeks ago, and I think that there is definitely an appetite to get York Street Interchange sorted out – but the next scheme to hit the ground was always going to be the sole decision of the Minister and the Executive rather than …

The Reality of Owning an Electric Vehicle In Northern Ireland is shocking…

Patrick Murdock on February 9, 2017, 2:05 pm

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A recent report issued this week by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) highlighted a huge surge in the sale of Electric Vehicles (EV) with a 20% increase in EV registrations in the UK. Figures for New Car registrations in Northern Ireland are down 0.9% from January 2016 levels compared with increases in the rest of the UK and figures for the uptake of EV registrations specifically for Northern Ireland are not available so we do not know …

21C Governance: Three Reasons British Railways Don’t Work (and How To Fix Them)

Ed Straw on December 5, 2016, 10:59 am

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How on earth could one of the world’s most advanced cities manage to disrupt its essential transport infrastructure, the lives of so many, and its economic activity so foolishly, and with such little interest from those in power? That was my conclusion in 2003. Today, exactly those words apply to another rail foul up with Southern Rail and to similar circumstances for many other British commuters and cities. The scale of human misery, stress, discomfort and the impact on working …

The strategically important A6 or the immortalised landscape of south Co Derry?

Mick Fealty on September 28, 2016, 12:47 pm

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Now, I don’t have a strong view on this issue. But the latest proposal for to build a four-lane dual carriageway, linking the main Derry to Belfast road at Toome with the M2, will cut close to Lough Beg and Mossbawn near the late poet’s former home. Arguably the link between Derry and Belfast, left hanging in the area for nearly 40 years, is one of Northern Ireland’s most strategically important roads in terms of linking Northern Ireland’s two largest …

McNulty’s campaign to bring Newry (belatedly) into a 21C railway service…

Mick Fealty on September 16, 2016, 12:28 pm

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So, £9 Million, no questions asked. Unsurprising the Perm Sec at Economy was a little concerned at the lack of accountability of the deal. We should not, of course, exaggerate what £9 million over three years can buy in terms of government spend. Lack of good, shovel ready and affordable ideas is one problem faced by politicians in power. Getting it past their Perm Secs is another. In this case the downsizing of government to just two parties has at …

Water charges to become an intractable feature of the Republic’s future landscape?

Mick Fealty on March 29, 2016, 8:00 am

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Post-election, Irish Water is playing something of a rearguard action. In its own legal advice was leaked to the Irish Times suggests that any wriggle room for getting rid of Water Charges has disappeared… “The benefit of the derogation has been lost for all time, and cannot be revived by seeking to reverse the decision to introduce charges. “A very limited derogation to this default position is allowed . . . if it is established practice not to recover the …

Blaming poor investment policy on a single government agency is surely missing the point?

Mick Fealty on December 7, 2015, 1:03 pm

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INFRASTRUCTURE FIRST: There is a need to channel wealth outwards to the west and downwards to the poorer parts of society. But taking effective responsibility for that requires a political acceptance of broader agency, not just heaping blame on public officials for doing their job within current politically preloaded constraints.

“Fresh Start” shows that ‘deals’ can be painful, yes. But impossible, certainly not.

Mick Fealty on November 18, 2015, 12:47 pm

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BEYOND BUNKUM: Small changes over time can shift the future a very long way. The trouble is that it takes courage, vision and enormous patience to effect even such small changes. FRESH START was a long time coming. But for now, just agreeing to set a budget may be small change enough.

What would it take to get a motorway to Derry/Londonderry? – Guest post by Wesley Johnston

Soapbox on February 10, 2015, 5:26 pm

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Back in 1964 William Craig, the Minister of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland, announced an ambitious plan to build a network of motorways around the province. In terms of the North West, the core of the plan was a motorway from Belfast to Coleraine – the M2. From this would come two spurs. The M22 would diverge at Antrim and go to Castledawson, serving Mid Ulster. The M23 would diverge north of Ballymena and go to Londonderry, via Limavady. At …

Irish Water: Just throwing money and comms at it won’t fix the problem.

Mick Fealty on January 29, 2014, 1:21 pm

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[Wicked problems are] social problems which are ill formulated, where the information is confusing, where there are many clients and decision-makers with conﬂicting values, and where the ramiﬁcations in the whole system are thoroughly confusing. – C. West Churchman You hardly need a crystal ball to see things are not going well for Irish Water. Its much smaller and less complex counterpart Northern Ireland Water has had four CEOs since 2007. A situation that’s been vacant now for four months, …

Narrow Water Bridge: “Yet when confronted with a real initiative that would help boost trade, we say no…”

Mick Fealty on August 20, 2013, 10:49 am

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By David McCann Just under a month ago, politicians in Stormont and the Dáil dealt a hammer blow to the Narrow Water bridge scheme. Citing escalating costs the former Finance Minister, Sammy Wilson, refused to pledge more funds to make up the £10 million shortfall that would be needed to build the bridge. This decision by politicians on both sides of the border to halt this vitally important project is a prime example of short sighted policy making. Let’s take …

American dream and the slow wasting of the US’s public infrastructure…

Mick Fealty on July 17, 2012, 5:08 pm

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At the Telegraph blog, Tim Stanley demonstrates (intentionally, or otherwise) the tensioned US politicians must walk between between a long term collective public interest and the needs of a private entreprise that’s brought life-changing technology to a much wider world. But in the case of the US, this is not simply a government versus private citizen tension. The US is at heart and sole a Whiggish Republic. You have to go north of the 49th parallel to encounter Tory Canada, …

Irish Government ‘postpones’ £400m A5 upgrade funding

Pete Baker on November 9, 2011, 2:26 pm

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Given the dire economic situation, and the fact that the Northern Ireland Regional Development Minister isn’t due to decide how the A5 Western Transport Corridor is to progress until “early 2012”, it’s hardly surprising that the Irish Government has withdrawn its £400million contribution to the £850million scheme. The RTÉ report describes it as being ‘postponed’ after a “review of a range of major capital infrastructure commitments”. [Indefinitely? – Ed] You might well think that… As Irish Labour Party transport spokesman, Joe …