'Berlin Wall' concern over lines

They said Lurgan looked like ‘a one-horse town’ with its main access route from the motorway continually blocked by what the called a ‘Berlin Wall’ structure.

William Street traders expressed concern about the safety of the new barriers which they said would do nothing to alleviate the ‘horrendous’ delays and called for a major town plan to be drawn up.

Chairman Martin Campbell claimed the DoE Roads’ Service said two years previously there were no proposals to alleviate the problem within the next 10 years, apart from repainting the yellow lines along the road.

He also said the DoE had forecast a four per cent increase in traffic per year in William Street, and he called this estimate ‘conservative’.

The installation of barriers at the level crossing was expected to make little difference to waiting times, said to be as long as ten minutes.