NI Transport Minister Conor Murphy and his southern counterpart Minister Noel Dempsey announced the preferred route for the A5 Western Transport Corridor.
This is the proposed 86 kilometre-long dual carriageway from Londonderry to Aughnacloy - which is estimated to cost between £650million and £850million.
Speaking in Omagh on Tuesday, Mr Murphy said: "This major road improvement scheme represents quite a significant step in improving connections between Dublin and Derry and Donegal in the North West of Ireland.
"Today's announcement of the preferred route marks the achievement, on time, of the second key milestone for this project agreed between both the Executive and the Irish Government," he said.
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"The proposed road is a high standard dual carriageway and will have no private accesses, no central reserve crossovers and the minimum of junctions.
"Many of the local roads will not be connected to the dual carriageway but will be taken over or under the new road or stopped up," he continued.
"This standard of dual carriageway has significant safety benefits for the road user," he continued, noting that the new dual carriageway will also bring an estimated saving on journey times of approximately 20 minutes.
"In environmental terms, the towns and villages along the route of the existing A5 will benefit greatly from this project," he insisted as the new dual carriageway will attract most of the long distance traffic, particularly the heavy goods vehicles, away from the existing A5.
"The reduced traffic volumes through the towns and settlements will create a safer environment with better air quality and reduced noise giving an overall better quality of life for the residents."
"I am pleased to say that our designers have succeeded in developing a preferred route which impacts directly on only a very small number of dwellings.
"Over the next few days, in advance of public exhibitions to be held next week, staff from Roads Service and its project consultants, Mouchel, will be visiting those dwelling owners to personally inform them of the line of the preferred route," he continued.
(BMcC/KMcA)
