The first week of a public inquiry into development of Belfast's notorious Westlink has reached an end with a curious controversy breaking out between those who support the project.

The Westlink carries a heavy load to traffic between the two main motorways in Northern Ireland and at peak times is often at a standstill.

Completed in 1984, it rapidly reached maximum capacity and has been like that ever since. Delays to freight and business caused by the traffic jams is said to run into tens of millions of pounds sterling a year.

Bleak future

The Department for Regional Development started the inquiry process running by setting out the case for improving the road system.

Not surprisingly they painted a bleak picture of the traffic chaos. Speeds as low as 14 kilometres per hour were recorded and the same journey could take six or 43 minutes depending on traffic conditions.

The situation for the future was bleak and a "do nothing" option was not the answer.

Express lane

The new improved Westlink would have underpasses replacing the roundabouts which have become serious bottlenecks. It would also have an extra lane in each direction.

The department made public for the first time, plans to turn one of those lanes into an express lane which could only be used by those wishing to travel the full length of the system. This however would require special traffic management.

But the inability of the department to confirm that a specific traffic management scheme would be in place when the new Westlink was fully operational created concerns in other areas.

The Belfast Harbour Commissioners demanded to know when the department would introduce such plans, if ever.

They feared that unless it was there at the start, motorists would simply ignore any future management plans and the improvements would disappear in a plethora of new traffic jams.

Traffic flow

But so far the department has declined to give such confirmation, leaving the Harbour Commissioners supportive but still rather sceptical of the ultimate success of the improvements.

The road experts have already predicted that if the scheme were to go ahead, parts of it would still reach capacity in just three years.

So there is not a lot of hope that the planned improvements will have a long term effect, unless the traffic flow can be managed carefully.

The inquiry has another week to consider the way forward and hear other objections to the scheme.