It was 17 years ago when all five parties in the Northern Ireland Executive agreed to a proposal to upgrade the A5 road between Derry and Aughnacloy.
In that time the number of cars, lorries and agricultural vehicles using the 58 mile stretch through the main northwest corridor, past the main towns of Strabane and Omagh and onwards to the Monaghan border, has soared. It has remained largely untouched since the 1960s. It’s not hard to imagine how much traffic using the road has soared from what it was built to accommodate.
So too the number of people who have lost their lives to fatal collisions along what has become Northern Ireland’s most dangerous road, with over 200 side roads connected. So too the cost of the project, from an initial estimate in 2007 of £800 million to more than double that now at £2.1bn.
Delays have proved costly, in more ways than one.
At Stormont last week pupils from St Ciaran’s College in Ballygawley, many of whom use the road every morning, every afternoon and every night, headed to Stormont to reinforce the message that work needs to start as soon as possible to save lives.
The school has suffered more than most in the last few years. Seventy-two of the school’s Year 14 pupils from the school carried 56 crosses with them to Stormont. Their classmate Kamile Vaicikonyte (17) should have been with them. She lost her life to an accident on the A5 earlier this year.
Their pilgrimage to the NI Assembly buildings in memory of their friend brought home just how devastating any death on the road can be. It’s not just the immediate impact to families — it’s the friends, the work colleagues, the school staff and pupils they may have sat beside, the clubs they were part of in the community, who all feel the effects.
There will be a sign of relief that, finally, after three public inquiries, a series of legal battle and financial concerns over the cost, the road improvement scheme has received the green light.
And there will, of course, be families left reflecting had this been done sooner, their loved ones might still be with them.
Not only will the road scheme mean a safer journey for the 20,000-plus vehicles than now use the road every day, it will improve economic prospects in the west, a part of Northern Ireland which has watched schemes on the eastern side of Lough Neagh approved, constructed and become operational as they sat frustrated.
What’s vital now that the final decision has been announced is that there are no more delays to work beginning. As campaigners have been saying for years. A5: Enough is Enough.