Brian McManus on the main Enniskillen to Derrylin road
RESIDENTS in Derrylin have called on the Roads Service to urgently prioritise upgrading their main road to Enniskillen, which they say is a ‘third world carriageway’.
Brian McManus, chairman of Aughakillymaude Community Association says there are serious concerns about sections of the A509 Derrylin Road which serves as the main route from Fermanagh and south Donegal to Dublin and is one of the county’s busiest roads.
He told the Herald: “This section of road needs raised to a standard which is above third world conditions by removing the many black spots which we have to endure on a daily basis. The high volume of traffic travelling on this road needs to be taken seriously by Transport NI.”
Brian has highlighted a number of keys areas of major concern along the carriageway.
“There is a mess at Derryhowlagh Hill at Macken with two raised ditches of stone only fit for donkeys and carts. There is also a fiasco of a bend at Keenans of Macken on which work commenced some years ago but was never completed.
“At Fatts Cross there is the A509 junction with the Kinawley Road with a notorious bend that’s a nightmare to negotiate. We fear for the occupants of the house on the corner. Unfortunately a fatality has already occurred at this bend and we don’t want another.”
Brian says residents’ concerns were emailed to the section engineer of Road Service on 2nd March this year. They received a reply stating that there were a number of parts of this road already upgraded.
“They also stated that some markings would happen in the next five to six weeks but this has not happened. We do not encounter many roads like this anywhere else and as usual we are treated like second class citizens here in Fermanagh. If these concerns are not dealt with very soon we could very well face devastating consequences,” Brian added.
The Fermanagh Herald received no response from the Department of Infrastructure in relation to the direct concerns raised by Mr McManus. Last month it emerged that the department’s budget for repairing the North’s roads runs out in October due to the current political stalemate at Stormont.
DfI revealed that the £43m it has set aside for maintenance work is almost spent, five months before the end of the financial year.
A spokesman said that repairs which need to be carried out after October “will require additional resources becoming available”.
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