Castlefin – Castlederg Road Improvement
The Castlefin – Castlederg road (R235 – N3) forms a strategic link between East Donegal and West Tyrone in Northern Ireland.
This route benefited greatly from improvements carried out during the period 2000 – 2005. These improvements were part financed by the European Union through the Interreg IIIA programme managed for the Special EU Programmes Body by DRDNI. The partners in this programme were Sligo, Cavan, Monaghan, Leitrim, Donegal County Councils and DRD Western and Southern Divisions, Northern Ireland. The project promoter was ICBAN.
The main improvements carried out on the route included minor road widening, strengthening and surfacing.
Improvements to the Inter-regional R235 has not alone benefited directly the Finn Valley and Eastern Donegal but also benefited a large region in Western Northern Ireland, most notably in West Tyrone. There is also National and International benefit in that the R235 is a tourist route and is one of the principal roads joining Enniskillen to Ballybofey and Raphoe. Traffic volumes on the R235 have substantially increased as a result of the re-opening in 1995 of a number of border roads, which were closed for over twenty years. The route is also used for the transportation of raw timber grown in Donegal to the processing plant located in Enniskillen, Co. Tyrone in Northern Ireland.
The improvements undertaken so far have been vital to the areas concerned but have come at a cost in that the extra traffic volumes have put added pressure on the existing bridge over the Finn River at Castlefin. Weight restrictions have had to be introduced on this bridge recently, which has an obvious negative effect on HGV vehicles using the route.
It is hoped the Castlefin Bridge can benefit from a similar programme as the Interreg IIIA in the future.