ENNISKILLEN motorists will be left gridlocked again after confirmation that a section of the Tempo Road will close one-way for over three months as part of a major gas conversion project in the town.
One of the North’s leading gas network operators, Evolve, will begin laying mains into Enniskillen on Monday and start work on much-anticipated gas conversions in the Tempo Road area.
With the closure running from Monday [May 20] until the end of August, there’ll be significant congestion, with traffic already a nightmare for residents.
Currently, morning traffic in the town is at an all-time high as many parents leave their children off to school and there’s growing concern that the one-way road closure will only increase traffic problems.
“Traffic management [on the Tempo Road] would be my main concern,” Fermanagh and Omagh District Councillor, Roy Crawford, who lives on the Tempo Road, told the Herald.
“The last thing that we want is the Tempo Road to turn out like the Dublin Road, where it would take you an hour to get through it.
“It’s a very busy road as it is. There’s a new school [Devenish College] out there and there’s an ever-growing population moving out onto the Tempo Road with new developments.”
The one-way closure will be in operation between the roundabout that connects the Cherrymount Link Road to the junction that meets Wickham Place and Castlecoole Road.
Town-bound traffic will be diverted along Crannog Way, Irvinestown Road and Dublin Road, with the works programme expected to run until late August.
News of the proposed three-month road closure has left Enniskillen residents frustrated.
“This will be an absolute nightmare. [Fermanagh] must be the most dug-up town in the country. Can these companies not all pool resources and dig once,” a frustrated resident told the Herald.
Another fumed: “Why can they not do it when schools are all off for holidays?”
It’s the latest in a list of roadworks in the county town.
In September, Queen Street and the Queen Elizabeth Road were sealed off with roadworks taking place at the roundabout opposite Enniskillen Library.
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