The main Enniskillen to Irvinestown Road (A32 Mossfield Road) RMG43
A LOCAL PARAMEDIC has said planned work to improved the much maligned A32 Road between Enniskillen and Omagh is taking place in the wrong area.
The paramedic who regularly travels between Enniskillen and Omagh through his employment believes the real troublespot along the route is between Enniskillen and Irvinestown, but at this stage no work is being planned in the area.
“It’s the wrong part of the road they’re doing up,” He told the Herald.
“What needs to be sorted out is the Irvinestown to Enniskillen side, that would be the part that really causes us the problems. It’s uneven and bumpy and there’s nowhere to pass really, it’s just a death trap that road.”
Last week Regional Development Minister Michelle McIlveen announced plans to publish the formal Notice of Intention to Proceed and the making of the Direction Order for a £6million road realignment scheme at Cornamuck on the A32 Omagh to Enniskillen route. The Cornamuck scheme involves the provision of 1.6km of realigned single carriageway on the A32 Tummery Road between Dromore and Irvinestown. The new road will extend from near the A32 Tummery Road/Drumskinny Road junction to 350 metres north west of the A32 Tummery Road/Longhill Road Junction. The works will include the construction of approximately 900 metres of new single carriageway through a green-field site, the widening of around 700 metres of existing carriageway and the realignment of the Longhill Road to improve access to the A32.
The paramedic insists the £6m would be better spent on another project.
“That road’s smooth whenever you drive it,” he noted. “They would be better off using the £6m for something else,” he added.
The Cornamuck scheme, which remains subject to funding, is one of a series of both on-line and off-line improvements identified for the A32 Omagh to Enniskillen route, which in the future may include the Irvinestown stretch.
Welcoming the progress on the A32 the First Minister Arlene Foster said:
“When completed, these road improvements will result in a more efficient, safe, attractive and reliable road for traffic using this route.”
Minister Michelle McIlveen added: “It will be of particular benefit to emergency vehicles and other traffic movements associated with the South West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen. I am pleased to say that this scheme has progressed to a position whereby it can be delivered in a reasonably short timescale when funding becomes available.”
Local Independent councillor Raymond Farrell was another to stress the need for work on the Fermanagh side of the A32.
“Obviously this is a very progressive development and I’m delighted about it, but I think it has to be part of a process in that I’m also very keen to see that progress on to such stretches as Sydare and Kilgartnaleague Bridge. Ambulances are finding that a particularly frustrating stretch of road. I’m aware there are occasions they are going down by the Kesh direction towards Altnagelvin as opposed to using that road.”
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