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The east-west A4 passes straight through Enniskillen. Formerly following the main street, the A4 was later diverted onto the Enniskillen Throughpass which was completed in 1986. The road today carries substantial amounts of traffic and is regularly congested through the town. This scheme consists of a series of three proposed phases which will increase capacity by easing key bottlenecks. The DRD seem to regard the three schemes as part of a longer-term "Wellington Road Improvement Strategy". This strategy seems to have included past schemes such as a traffic management system installed at the western end circa 2011, and widening work on the Throughpass in 2010. This page, however, concentrates on the three proposals yet to go ahead as of 2016:

1. Widening a 300m stretch of the A4 Dublin Road to provide two lanes eastbound from the Tempo Road junction at the Fire Station, past the A32 Wickham Place junction (around Tesco and the Belmore Court Hotel) and ending close to the start of the 40mph speed limit, where presumably the two lanes will merge into one.
2. Upgrade of the Gaol Square signalised junction to permit two lanes to turn right from Wellington Road (the Throughpass) onto the Dublin Road, instead of the single right-turn lane that currently exists. This will probably be accomplised within the existing road footprint by rebuilding the traffic islands and adjusting the traffic signals.
3. To widen a 200m stretch of the Wellington Road from one to two lanes eastbound from the Erneside footbridge (where the current two lanes drop to one) to the end of the Inis Ceithleann Bridge, where it currently becomes two lanes once again.

Upon completion, the Throughpass will have two lanes in each direction for its entire length, increasing capacity. The only unknown is the related A4 Enniskillen Bypass project which would, upon completion, significantly relieve the Throughpass. It, however, is on a much longer timescale, so TransportNI may still progress this scheme in order to provide shorter term benefits. I am grateful to the Impartial Report for the invaluable information in this news story about the scheme from last August.

Updates

19 Jul 2023: This update is just to say that, six years after the completion of phase 1 of this plan, nothing further appears to have happened. Neither the upgrade of Gaol Square to allow two right-turn lanes from the Throughpass onto Dublin Road, nor the widening of the shaort stretch of the Wellington Road that is still one lane eastbound, has happened. While it is true that the councils are currently working on local transport strategies, these upgrades are on the strategic A4 which means that they should still be the responsibility of DFI Roads rather than the councils. It is also possible that, with the construction of the A4 Enniskillen Bypass planned for the next few years, DFI might regard improvements to Wellington Road as no longer a good use of money. It would be worth a public representative asking DFI about the current status of these proposals.

23 Oct 2016: Work on Phase 1 of this scheme is due to begin tomorrow, 24 October and last until 27 November. This will see 100 metres of Wickham Place widened. Work will then move to the main A4 Dublin Road on 9 January and work will take place to widen 300 metres of Dublin Road, as outlined in the description at the top of this page. This work is due to be completed by the end of March 2017. The total cost is given as £500,000 which is a bit less than predicted last year. Although only about 300m long, the scheme has the potential to make a big difference to the performance of this stretch of the A4 through Enniskillen. This will see the first phase of the longer-term "Wellington Road Improvement Strategy" completed.

6 Apr 2016: I have decided to create a page for this family of three schemes now that it looks as if it could end up being quite significant, if all three phases outlined above go ahead. It needs to be stressed that at this point in time only Phase 1 seems to be progressing. The remaining two elements are really aspirations. Planning for Phase 1 is well advanced. The DRD Minister spoke about it in the Assembly around a year ago at which point he stated that he had given the project the go-ahead. As a result, the draft Vesting Order (whereby the DRD buy the land needed) was put out to consultation over Christmas time, ending on 4 January 2016. Following the Consultation, the Fermanagh Herald quoted the DRD as saying that "Plans for a proposed road widening scheme in Enniskillen at the A4 Dublin Road, between Tempo Link road and the Wickham Link Road were subject to public consultation on lands acquisition in December and TransportNI is currently considering the responses" adding that "construction would be likely to take around 16 weeks to complete". As yet there does not seem to be a definite timescale for construction. Planning for Phase 2 and Phase 3 seems to have been underway since at least 2012, but as yet have not progressed towards construction.