The Department for Infrastructure has confirmed plans to remove the Ormeau Road roundabout as part of plans to facilitate the North/ South Belfast Glider.
Infrastructure Minister announced a £35million investment in order to set up the route for the Glider expansion in Belfast that would create a new service between the North and South of the city and the extension of the G2 service.
However, plans for the North/South service to run from Carryduff to Glengormley have been scrapped and will now run from the Cairnshill Park & Ride off Saintfield and proposed £13m Park & Ride/ Interchange facility on O’Neill Road.
Read more: Minister announces update on extension of Glider service
Work to facilitate this is due to begin later this year around the city centre and parts of the routes in North and South Belfast. The northern route will see work carried out from Clifton Street to Innisfayle Park off Antrim Road while the Southern will take place up until the Ormeau Road and Park Road junction.
Further work, that will be announced at a later date, will be needed in order to the project to progress, such as a major change to a busy junction in South Belfast as the roundabout on Ormeau Road will be removed and replaced with a signalised junction.
DfI has said that these current proposals will be aimed at improving bus journey time and punctuality.
It is not yet known when the work to transform the junction will take place, although it has been previously estimated that the Glider route would be in place by 2030 at a cost of around £148m
A DfI spokesperson said: “This is an announcement of a £48 million investment into public transport in the Belfast area. With regards to Rosetta Roundabout, the BRT2 route will pass through this area and the current proposal is to convert the roundabout to a signalised junction to improve bus journey time reliability and punctuality as well as improvements to active travel from a road safety aspect, however, this section of the route will not form part of this initial phase of delivery, but will be progressed at a later stage.”
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