ALMOST 200 businesses and organisations in the North West have signed an open letter in support of the A5 dual carriageway project.
Momentum has continued to grow behind the campaign to build the long-delayed 85km infrastructure scheme between Derry and Aughnacloy.
It follows the deaths of five people at various points of the A5 between August and October last year.
It brought the total number of people killed on the notorious road since 2006 to 48.
The executive originally agreed to build the dual carriageway in 2007, but the project has been hit by funding and legal challenges.
The latest public consultation around the A5 Western Transport Corridor closed on Friday.
Another public inquiry is due to commence, but the Planning Appeals Committee has yet to set a date.
Against the backdrop of those delays a new Tyrone GAA-founded pressure group named A5: Enough is Enough, emerged in January this year.
Now more than 180 businesses, organisations, and institutions have thrown their support behind the campaign to progress the dual carriageway.
Jointly organised by the Londonderry and Letterkenny Chambers of Commerce, the open letter has been signed by businesses across Derry, Donegal and Tyrone and submitted as part of the recent consultation process carried out by the Department for Infrastructure.
The letter to the Department for Infrastructure describes the A5 dual carriageway as a “crucial infrastructure project for the North West”, which, once completed, “will deliver stronger and better connectivity for our region”.
In a joint statement, the chief executive of Derry Chamber, Anna Doherty, and her counterpart in Letterkenny, Toni Forrester, said: “After multiple appeals, delays, and public inquiries, the people of West Tyrone and the wider North West deserve a road network which is up to date and up to modern road safety standards.
“Tragically, this road has been incredibly dangerous over the past three decades, with over 70 deaths since 1998 on the A5.
“While these upgrades will be crucial for our economic fortunes and will go some way to help address long-standing, historic regional imbalances, it will more fundamentally seek to address serious safety concerns and prevent further loss of life in communities which have been so tragically and so deeply impacted by these deaths in recent years.
“We are not surprised at the number of organisations who have put their names to this open letter.
“This is a matter of real, genuine concern for thousands of people in this part of our island. It is vital that the Department for Infrastructure, as well as the Irish Government, work swiftly to deliver these upgrades once the latest public inquiry is concluded and begin upgrading this significant road network for the North West.”
