TRAFFIC lights at a busy junction in Enniskillen are changing “faster than usual” and causing major congestion and delays across the town.
The misfiring traffic lights at the junction of Belmore Street and the Dublin Road near Gaol Square are creating a huge bottleneck, with motorists regularly getting gridlocked.
In January, after a vehicle collided with a light post at lunchtime, all the traffic lights at Gaol Square crossroads junction in the centre of Enniskillen were out of order for several hours.
The lights, which are also connected to the ones at the junction of Belmore Street and the Dublin Road, were fixed but the lights sequence has not been working on them properly since, with the lights going green for a much shorter length of time.
Motorists have been voicing their complaints to the Herald, while Ulsterbus and the Fire Service have contacted the Department for Infrastructure about the issue as it is badly affecting their routes in and out of the town.
“The traffic lights are only letting three or four cars through at a time. They’ve been changing faster than usual for ages,” an Ulsterbus source said.
“It means that everything from public buses to school buses, which have to make connections, end up being half an hour to 40 minutes late. The past four weeks have been the worst for traffic jams in the town.”
One Enniskillen resident said it took him 20 minutes to get from the Irvinestown Road to the Dublin Road – a journey that typically takes five minutes.
“I got into my car and it was bumper-to-bumper for 20 minutes at least. Traffic barely moved. It was so frustrating as I could see how busy it was at the traffic lights,” the motorist told the Herald.
“People shouldn’t be stuck for hours in traffic wasting petrol with a cost-of-living crisis going on, to say nothing of the environmental impact.”
A Department for Infrastructure spokesman said they were aware of the problem and would be addressing it.
“The department is aware of an issue on the Frith’s Pass/Wellington Road approach to the traffic signals at Gaol Square,” the spokesman said.
“An order has been issued to our contractor but due to other ongoing planned works around Enniskillen this work will be programmed for after the Easter holidays.”
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