THE second phase of multi-million realignment of the road from Illistrin to the Mountain Top is to begin early in the New Year.

Presently, this narrow road forms the main artery into Letterkenny from the Northwest of the County, and due to the steep gradients and poor alignment, mixed with the heavy volume of rural and urban traffic, delays and long queues a common occurrence.

The proposed works have been divided into two phases, and Phase One, which has seen the upgrading of the road to the Mountain Top and roundabout installed at the Mountain Top junction is due to be completed within the next couple of weeks.

Phase Two of the project will see five kilometres of road from Letterkenny to Illistrin tying in with the existing road just north of Coolboy Post Office. The total cost for the project has been budgeted at ¤26million.

Addressing this week's meeting of the Letterkenny Electoral Area, Mr Damian McDermott, Senior Engineer with the NRA explained: "We are now seeing phase one coming to a close and Fergus Towey will be taking over the second phase on behalf of Donegal County Council. We are currently in the process of appointing a contractor for this phase of the scheme and hope to have a start date in early January, preceded by a sod-turning ceremony."

He continued: "There is a construction time frame of two years during which there will be a revised speed limit along three kilometres of this road of 60k/ph. We hope to keep traffic moving as quickly as possible."

Councillor Dessie Larkin asked how soon Illistrin National School could be "taken out of the equation."

Mr McDermott explained: "We have had a several meetings with the Board of Management at the school and the realignment of the road will increase safety in and around the area of the school as well as upgrade the junction."