More than £100m is to be spent upgrading one of Ireland's most dangerous stretches of roadway.
Work on a high standard dual carriageway between the outskirts of Dungannon, where the North's M1 motorway ends, and Ballygawley will take three years to complete.
With the proposed project costing £102 million, the Department of Regional Development confirmed today that officials are in final negotiations with a provisional preferred bidder.
If all goes according to plan, a contract will be signed in June with work getting under way by next Spring and due to finish in 2011.
The A4 has claimed many lives, at least one already this year, and with an increasing volume of traffic heading west towards Enniskillen, Omagh and Derry politicians on all sides have been pushing for a much better road. The average annual daily traffic in 2005 was 16,500 vehicles.
The work will cover a distance of 20kms, and costs include land acquisition. Fermanagh South Tyrone MLA Tommy Gallagher said: "This dual carriageway work is particularly important in the light of the investment on offer from the Dublin government for improving roads in the border areas.
"I have already highlighted to the transport committee in Dail Eireann the importance of the Sligo-Belfast-Larne corridor and this work will be a first step in development of the corridor."