An A1 vesting order was made by Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure on 13 November 2026 for land needed to improve the A1 dual carriageway between Hillsborough Roundabout and Loughbrickland. The statutory notice covers 25.2 kilometres of the Belfast to Dublin route and gives the long-running road safety project an important new land-acquisition milestone. The order has been made, rather than merely proposed.
The latest step follows approval of the scheme’s Outline Business Case on 9 November, with an estimated cost of £125 million to £150 million. Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins says the department intends to begin procurement for a site-clearance contract. That should not be confused with a construction contract award or a confirmed date for the main improvement works.
For landowners, businesses and communities along the corridor, the A1 vesting order is more consequential than another general expression of government support. The Department has now exercised statutory land-vesting powers for the proposed improvements, although the published notice also sets out a limited route to challenge the order. Separate work on procurement, site clearance and delivery still lies ahead.
What the A1 vesting order changes
The Department’s notice of making confirms that the order was made on 13 November under the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 and the Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1993. It identifies land to be vested in the Department for improvement works along the A1, part of the Trunk Road T4. This is a statutory land-acquisition step, not an ordinary private planning application.
An A1 vesting order matters because a road authority needs control of the necessary land before it can carry out works on the scale proposed. The exact interests affected are a matter for the order and its deposited maps, not something that can safely be deduced from the project headline. Anyone with property, access or business interests along the corridor should examine the actual documents rather than assume every neighbouring holding is included.
The notice states that the order and maps may be inspected through the Department’s offices and online. It does not announce that construction crews are starting immediately, nor does it settle compensation for individual owners. The distinction between making a land order and physically entering a site is worth retaining when assessing the project’s timetable.
Four safer junctions on the Hillsborough to Loughbrickland route
The official A1 Junctions Phase 2 project overview describes a programme of safety changes along approximately 25 kilometres of dual carriageway. Central to the scheme are new grade-separated junctions, with local traffic able to cross or join the route through redesigned connections rather than rely on the existing central reservation gaps.
The plans also include closing gaps in the central reserve and introducing a continuous safety barrier along the route. Changes to side-road and private accesses are part of that approach. Such measures can reduce dangerous crossing and turning conflicts, but they also require careful treatment of journeys made by residents, farm operators and businesses whose present access arrangements may change.
Four grade-separated junctions have been included in the department’s scheme descriptions, along with other adjustments to the road network. These are substantial civil engineering interventions, rather than an isolated resurfacing contract. The purpose is to address safety across a corridor that has long been identified for improvement.
Why the scheme is costed at £125m to £150m
The Department confirmed that the Outline Business Case was approved on 9 November 2026 and now estimates the A1 programme at between £125 million and £150 million. This is the department’s current published range, not the value of a signed construction contract. The figure should not be presented as money already spent, a fixed tender price or an unconditional commitment to an opening date.
That distinction matters to contractors and the supply chain as much as to the public. The A1 vesting order removes an important land-related obstacle, while the stated intention to procure site-clearance work points to another practical stage. Main construction depends on the further contractual, programme and governance decisions that the department will have to take.
The business case and making of the order are separate milestones. Approval of one does not turn every future stage into an accomplished fact. Planning professionals following infrastructure schemes should continue to distinguish project approval, compulsory acquisition, early enabling contracts and the eventual start of major works.
What affected owners should check now
The formal vesting-order notice gives anyone wishing to question the validity of the order one month from publication of the notice to apply to the High Court on the specified grounds. Those grounds concern whether the order is within the Department’s powers or whether statutory procedures have been followed. That is not an unrestricted opportunity to reopen the project’s wider merits.
With an A1 vesting order now made, owners or occupiers who may be affected should check the deposited maps, the land descriptions and any correspondence received from the Department. The notice provides locations where the documents can be inspected. Advice about a particular property, challenge or compensation entitlement needs to be based on the exact legal instruments and circumstances, not a general news account.
Land acquisition and changes to private accesses can have effects extending beyond the immediate road boundary. Agricultural access, deliveries, local journeys and the practical use of retained land may all be important to individual households and enterprises. Those potential issues justify scrutiny without assuming that every one of them is established for every property on the route.
Road safety and the Belfast to Dublin connection
Minister Liz Kimmins described the A1 as a strategically important route
in the Department’s 13 November announcement. The corridor is part of the wider Eastern Seaboard connection between Belfast and Dublin. The Department says sections can carry up to 40,000 vehicles a day, placing pressure on a road where safe junction movements are particularly important.
The investment case is therefore wider than simply increasing road capacity. Closing central-reserve openings and separating conflicting traffic movements are principally safety measures. Local traffic will also need sensible alternative connections so that improving the strategic route does not simply create avoidable problems for nearby communities.
The A1 vesting order moves the land process forward after years of environmental work, published draft orders and public inquiry arrangements. The department first published its environmental assessment and draft statutory orders in 2019. The fact that the project has been under consideration for years does not diminish the significance of the newly made order: the making of the vesting order is a distinct new statutory event.
What happens next
The Department says it intends to start procuring a site-clearance contract. That is the next stated operational step, rather than proof that the full project is under construction. Dates for the main works, the final contract value and individual land arrangements should be checked against later formal announcements as they are made.
Readers interested in the separate planning systems across the UK can also consult Planning Geek’s Northern Ireland planning overview. The statutory road-vesting process reported here should not be mistaken for a planning application under English legislation or treated as equivalent to England’s compulsory purchase procedures in every respect.
For now, the A1 vesting order confirms that the Department for Infrastructure has crossed an important legal threshold on a proposed £125 million to £150 million safety upgrade. The most useful developments to watch next will be site-clearance procurement, landowner arrangements, any formal challenge, a main construction contract and an evidenced programme for the junction works.
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