Roadworks in Enniskillen on Sunday caused traffic chaos with one irate business owner describing the situation as “farcical”. And it can be confirmed that more delays are on the horizon with roadworks planned for this Sunday, January 19 with a road closure at Queen Street and also Sunday January 26, which will see Henry Street closed.
At the weekend roadworks saw the closure of all four lanes at Queen Street in Enniskillen and caused long delays on the Sligo Road coming in to town with queues as far back as Scaffog roundabout and on to the Derrylin road.
The Department of Infrastructure had placed notice of the roadworks on its TrafficWatchNI website but this notice caused confusion. On Sunday it stated that a road closure would take place at Queen Street and that it would run daily from Sunday Jan 12 to 5pm on Sunday Jan 26.
However, no roadworks were in place during weekdays this week and the notification has since been taken off the website.
One business owner, who did not want to be named, called in to question the notification by the Department of Infrastructure:
“Do they really expect people to check in to a website on a daily basis to see if there are roadworks in their area? There was no warning coming into town as to the roadworks and as far as I know no attempt to properly notify people. Not only did this cause traffic chaos but it also caused the loss of tens of thousands of businesses in town.”
Motorists are facing more delays over the next two weekends. The TrafficWatchNI website has posted notifications of further roadworks planned for Sunday on Queen Street and for Sunday January 26 for Henry Street. The website states that delays of five minutes can be expected this Sunday and 15 minutes the following Sunday.
“What was the situation with emergency services?” the business owner asked, before adding: “People had no idea what was causing the delays. Was it roadworks? An accident? Or a terrorist attack? There seems to me that there has been no attempt to do anything positive in the way of either letting people know about the roadworks or indeed attempt to come up with a solution that will not cause as long delays.”
There were also reports of an accident that occurred on the Wellington Road on Sunday afternoon that contributed to delays.
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