Derry city is bypassed on the east and north by a succession of roads that form a continuous route - the A514 Crescent Link, the A515 Foyle Bridge, the A515 Madam's Bank Road and the recently-constructed A515 Skeoge Link. The Culmore Road roundabout is one of the biggest bottlenecks on this route, lying half way along Madam's Bank Road. It connects to the A2 Culmore Road, one of the main arteries into the city from the north (see map).

The original arrangement (built in the early 1980s) was a conventional two-lane roundabout, ie without traffic lights as shown in the sketch map below (not to scale). However, traffic congestion here is significant, especially on the two ends of Culmore Road, and it was clear that something had to be done to improve flows.

Original arrangement of Culmore Road roundabout.

The plan is to expand the roundabout to the east and turn it into a signalised gyratory junction, as shown in the Roads Service map below. A "gyratory" is a road that is a bit like a roundabout, but is NOT a roundabout because traffic lights create different priorities than you would find on a true roundabout. The roundabout will be three lanes wide. There will also be two dedicated free-flow "jet lanes" (lanes that allow vehicles to bypass the roundabout) from the Foyle Bridge direction left onto the Culmore Road into the city, and from the rural end of Culmore Road left onto the Foyle Bridge. A related but separate scheme will see Madam's Bank Road north of this roundabout widened to two lanes in each direction.

Map of improved Culmore Road roundabout, taken from this PDF file
which was released to the public in late March 2011. [Roads Service map]

The scheme was announced in September 2009, and the contract for Phase 1 was signed in December 2009. Phase 1 consists of constructing the enlarged embankment for the new roads, as well as diverting some local access roads. According to Roads Service, private developers contributed a significant proportion of the £1.1m cost of this phase. Phase 2 will involve construction of the road itself and is expected that the contract for this part will be signed in late 2010.

Progress

9 Nov 2011: The front cover of Roads Service's Autumn Council Report to Derry City Council, just released, contains a fabulous photo of this scheme. The spiral lane markings are very obvious.

Culmore Road roundabout, ca Sep 2011. [Roads Service, see link above for source]

30 Oct 2011: The junction was officially opened by Regional Development Minister Danny Kennedy on 13 October 2011, although it had by then been in use for two months. The total cost of the scheme is given as £2.75m. If we assume that refers to Phases 1 and 2 taken together, then that means that just over 80% of the cost was funded by Intereg. The Minister said: “The roundabout, which lies on a key strategic route, has over 45,000 vehicles per day passing through it and is an important junction for motorists. The completion of the Culmore junction has removed a significant obstacle to motorists at peak times of the day. The new signalised roundabout has eased congestion at this key junction, resulting in improved safety and journey times for traffic travelling this route.” The small number of complaints that were made after opening (see below) do not seem to be borne out judging by the silence that has followed since then.

20 Aug 2011: The junction was indeed fully switched on and opened to traffic on 14th August, although the two jet lanes did not open straight away. This was perhaps to let Roads Service monitor how the new junction worked without the added complication of fast-moving jet lanes to surprise drivers still getting familiar with the junction. A nice job all round.

Not everybody is happy. The driver quoted in this piece clearly does not understand the difference between a gyratory junction and a conventional roundabout, or indeed that gyratories are an extremely common and time-proven design in the UK. In many instances they operate much more efficiently than a straightforward signalised crossroads, since they allow multiple flows to run simultaneously, increasing the capacity of the junction. They are found in many places in Northern Ireland - eg Broadway at the end of the M1; York Street interchange in Belfast; Tillysburn on the Sydenham Bypass, although admittedly they were not well known in Derry until now. The implication in the article that a proper junction only has "one" set of traffic lights is complete nonsense. Roads Service correctly point out that the design of the junction is such that it would be unsafe to operate it without lights, and also that peak time congestion would likely be worse without them.

12 Aug 2011: According to a report on BBC Foyle, the upgraded Culmore Road "roundabout" is due to be opened fully on Sunday 14th August, marking the end of a two-phase project which began 20 months ago.

23 July 2011: This press release issued five few days ago suggests that the scheme will be completed in "mid August", which is great news if it means the upgraded junction will be operational for the schools going back. Meanwhile, the contract for the adjacent Madam's Bank Road widening scheme has now been awarded.

14 May 2011: Roads Service have now published an updated map of the road layout on their web site). This shows the planned arrangement of lanes on the finished junction, which will be "spiral" lane markings (markings that guide traffic towards the edge of the roundabout as they go round, so they can safely turn off without having to change lanes). The contractor, Whitemountain Quarries Ltd, continues to work on this scheme.

25 Apr 2011: Work on this scheme got underway in March, and there is now evidence of a lot of activity. This is the final phase of the scheme which will see an enlarged signalised gyratory junction replace the current roundabout by the end of the summer.

10 Feb 2011: The contract for phase 2 of this scheme was awarded yesterday to Whitemountain Quarries Ltd. According to the Minister work is due to begin in March and be completed "by the end of the summer", which we can assume means the end of August.

14 Jan 2011: In the minutes of a Roads Service Board meeting on 30 November it has been revealed that they have been successful in applying for "up to £2.278m" from the Interreg 4A scheme to go towards phase 2 of this scheme. It's not clear whether this is the full cost or only part of it. It's also not clear whether the cost cutting announced yesterday will impact on this scheme. As this is not a strategic scheme, however, it may well be unaffected.

12 Dec 2010: The contract for phase 2 of the scheme is now out to tender and will close on 23rd December. The tender anticipates that work will begin in February 2011 and last "no longer than 20 weeks". By this timetable we could therefore expect completion no later than mid July. No cost estimate is given for phase 2.

12 Sep 2010: Phase 1 was carried out during the first four months of 2010 (see photo below). The rock embankment is now waiting and ready for the road itself. According to a meeting with Derry City Council on 6 July 2010, "[Roads Service said] that the £1.1m used to put new embankment in place at the roundabout had to be spent by March [2010], and that further funding for additional work on the roundabout was not yet available. [Roads Service] stated that [they] had been confidentially assured that funding would soon be released for the scheme’s completion from Intereg cross border funding." Thus we would anticipate construction on the new roundabout either later this year, or early in 2011.

The new embankment under construction in March 2010. [Roads Service image from here]