VISIBLE progress is yet to be made on the Enniskillen by-pass which had initially been scheduled for completion by March 2018.
The bypass would link the main A4 Belfast road to the main roads heading towards Dublin and Sligo, enabling through traffic to bypass the town centre.
Ten years ago, reporting of the ‘good news’ awaiting capital spend the Herald provided an update on two major infrastructure projects; the Southern by-pass and the Cherrymount Link. At that time confirmation of a completion date for the Enniskillen by-pass was outlined as March 2018, at a media briefing in Enniskillen hosted by the former Roads Minister, Conor Murphy.
Senior Roads officer, Sam Webb referring to the by-pass at the time said, “It is all subject,” he explained, “to the normal statutory provisions and the availability of funds in nine years’ time but the plan is to have that bypass completed by 2018.”
At a special meeting of the Council in the Townhall last month, Councillor Robert Irvine, pictured below, raised questions in regard to the anticipated start date for the by-pass. Present at the meeting was David McKinley, acting divisional roads manager.
“The answer is we don’t know, it’s funding dependent,” he responded.
“At a price range of £25million/£30million there and thereabouts it will all depend on the available funding and whether that comes through. All I do know is we are in a really good place now in terms of actually fixing the route and knowing exactly what it is. We are at an advanced level of design,” he added again, “It’s all funding dependent.”
A spokesman for the roads agency recently outlined that the “next steps” for the scheme are under consideration.
Providing an update a spokesman said, “A public information day was held in April 2018 when the preferred route was presented to the public. The Department considered all the comments received to this consultation and in January 2019, given the very low number of objections received to the scheme, decided that a public inquiry into the scheme proposals was not required.”
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