|
|
Status
|
Construction
scheme (proposed) |
|
Where
|
To
provide a new link between Hospital Road
and Crevenagh Road via Winter's Lane,
Omagh. |
|
Total
Length
|
0.6 km / 0.4 miles
(including 0.3 km / 0.2 miles of
upgraded laneway)
|
|
Dates
|
Winter's Lane has
existed for at least 150 years
1992 - Included in
Omagh Area Plan 1987-2002
2007 - Scheme included in Sub-Regional
Transportation Plan
No plans to construct in near future -
as of Aug 2014
|
|
Cost
|
£unknown
|
|
Photos
/ Map
|
See below. |
|
See
Also
|
General
area map - Google Maps
|
This particular road
scheme has been a proposal for at least twenty
years. The purpose of the scheme is to provide a
link road connecting Hospital Road - which is
the distributor for a large residential area,
and the new hospital - to the main A5. The
rationale is that this would relieve the
considerable pressure that exists at the "Swinging
Bars" roundabout (where the Hospital Road
merges with the A505 Killyclogher Road to
continue into the town as Campsie Road) by
providing a route to the south of the town
bypassing this junction.
Winter's Lane has
existed for at least 150 years. The easternmost
stretch was upgraded during the second half of
the twentieth century to a standard two-lane
local road to provide access to housing
developments, but the remaining 50%, on the
western side, is a narrow tree-lined laneway,
currently open to pedestrians but closed to
vehicles. This
link to Google Streetview shows how it
looked in 2009. The map below highlights in RED
the section of laneway that would need to be
upgraded, while the existing "road" section of
Winter's Lane is shown in BLUE. Together these
would form the Winter's Lane Link Road.
View Winter's
Lane Link Road, Omagh in a larger map
Despite not being implemented during the
lifetime of the Omagh Area Plan
1987-2002, the 2007 Sub-Regional
Transportation Plan chose to include the
scheme, meaning that it is still a live
proposal. There are various factors that
affect its likelihood to proceed.
- In favour of it
proceeding is the fact that Stage 3 of the
Omagh Throughpass opened in August 2006,
bringing the main A5 much closer to the
proposed route of this road. This makes
any proposed link from Crevenagh Road to
Hospital Road much more useful than it was
when the A5 ran along Dublin Road much
further to the west. It would also be a
fairly inexpensive scheme, since 50% of
the route is already in existence and
would need almost no further work.
- Against the scheme is the recent
completion of the Cranny
Link Road in January 2014 which also
links the Hospital Road to the main A5,
albeit further out of the town. This has
the effect of providing another route for
Hospital Road traffic, reducing the case
for provision of the Winter's Lane Link
Road. Additionally, there is the fact that
Winter's Lane, as it currently exists, is
really rather pretty and many would
consider it to be "a bit of a shame" to
replace it with a conventional road. In
the light of the completion of the Cranny
Link Road, a more nuanced approach might
be a smaller-scale upgrade to become a
combined foot and cycleway.
At the time of writing (August 2014) there
do not appear to be any plans to build this
road in the near future. There are no
obvious housing areas nearby, so it's
unlikely to attract funding from a private
developer. This would mean TransportNI (the
new name for Roads Service) funding the
road, and local schemes like this tend to
attract a very low priority.
.
.
|
