Roadworks to step up as schools close for summer
Roadworks at the Red Bay Roundabout
(CNS): The National Roads Authority (NRA) is stepping up its roadworks after schools close early in July, expanding and repairing roads in the Red Bay area. Work has already begun on the reconfiguration of the roundabout there and on the east-west arterial. Officials said that to improve safety, as well as widening it to three lanes, the roundabout will be re-surfaced to slant inwards while traffic islands and sidewalks will also be reconstructed. There had been a number of concerns raised by drivers about the safety of that roundabout and problems of flooding. CNS submitted a number of questions to the relevant officials about the problems but the questions have never been answered.
Although there were no explanations about the problems with the original road construction, officials released information this week about the escalation of the current roadworks in the area. They said the work was to accommodate the future widening of the east-west arterial between the Dr Tomlinson Roundabout and the DMS/Grand Harbour roundabout.
Schools will be closed while the work is being done but it is still a busy roundabout and the NRA said allowances were being made to ensure the continued flow of traffic.
“When work is underway, one lane will remain open as usual, and the closed bypass lane will be re-routed to another road to maintain traffic capacity,” officials said, adding that the work wasn’t expected to result in major traffic diversions or holdups on the east-west bypass.
To further minimize the impact on motorists, most of this work will be done during off-peak times. The plan is to limit the amount of work during peak hours on weekdays (between 7am and 9am, and from 5pm to 7pm) and in so doing, avoid disruptions to drivers going to and from work.
Once the Red Bay Roundabout is finished, only one direction of the main road will be worked on at a time. When work is being done to the east-bound lanes, one of the bypass lanes will be open for traffic as usual, but the other lane heading to the eastern districts will be diverted through the old section of Shamrock Road.
During this phase diversions will be in place for west-bound traffic heading towards town as there will be no right-turns from the Red Bay Roundabout. To access the Prospect or Red Bay areas, traffic will need to use the Dr Tolminson Roundabout. When the west-bound lanes are being worked on, one of the bypass lanes will be open for traffic as usual but the other lane heading towards George Town will be diverted through Prospect Point Road.
Drivers and pedestrians are encouraged to remain aware of the temporary changes and to drive with caution in the area to ensure the safety of NRA workers and the general public. Road users are asked to also pay close attention to signage indicating any lane closures or diversions.
Category: Local News
Did I read right ? It says work will be done between 7am and 9am, and between 5pm and 7pm ? Surely they meant to say NOT at these times ?
CNS: Yes, that was an error. It has been fixed now. Apologies.
I really hope whoever is in charge of the design of the new roundabout is not the fool who did the old one. What fool puts reverse camber on a roundabout?
Where did they get their road engineering degree?
And how do they keep getting hired again and again?
Imagine this ! 5pm traffic and there is a 3 vehicle fender bender after destiny dr Savannah heading east ! Where you going ?
How about opening the left turn lane on Shedden/Crewe Rd approaching the traffic lights at the Eastern Ave junction when driving from the Post Office.There has been a lane there for years but some crackpot erected a post carrying the road name right in the middle of it! – only a Civil Servant could have done this.
Whilst I’m at it what about widening both ends of McField Lane which are very restricted and only allow one way traffic. There is land available at both ends which could be acquired at from from the owners – only a very small area would be needed.Again initiative is something sorely lacking in Goverment employees as it is not rewarded as everyone gets a raise regardless of how they perform.
Electioneering 101. The path to success is always paved.
Can we have some kind of drop off around the edge, this can be used to quickly sweep away the broken glass and debris from accidents. Like someone pointed out, people have no idea how to use this roundabout, and 3 lanes is going to melt some brains around here. Example, if you are coming from Red Bay and going towards town, you don’t go in the outside lane – but it is so commonplace, it is accepted. Just stop it, idiots.
The use of that roundabout is wrong on many levels and traffic has adapted to that. The first problem is traffic joining from Propspect point road, it should never join the roundabout if traffic is already on it, in either lane. If you are coming from Red Bay and going to town, on the inside lane, and wanting to end up down south sound, you should be able to exit the roundabout onto the left lane, but because traffic joins from PPR it blocks you from exiting in that lane. If there was an accident, those joing from PPR would likely be in the wrong. The roundabout would work a lot better if traffic couldn’t cut through Red Bay or Prospect Point as both these routes cut off the main traffic flow. The use of the outside lane from Red Bay means you won’t have some idiot from PPR cutting off your exit. The Red Bay and Prospects roads should only carry the local traffic from these areas, the main through route would then carry the bulk of the traffic and not be constantly blocked by those going around.
How about finishing the many uncompleted road destruction/construction sites all around the island? Or is that too much to ask? Never mind. I just answered my own question.
Please Please Please just add a lane from Old Prospect Point where the road is closed off to go straight to South Sound without having to go via the roundabout. Most of the traffic heading South in the morning are people dropping kids to school. This will create a better flow for all motorist in this area.
That would be great as long as they find a way to stop the selfish people who go onto the roundabout at Hurleys just to immediately exit and cut in front (bringing to a halt) the line of cars who took the proper slip road to get onto South Sound. I suppose that technically, people are allowed to do this, but they sure frustrate a lot of drivers for the sake of getting in front of a couple of cars.
contact the NRA, it is their intention for motorists to actually use the roundabout, it is safer and prevents the issue you refer to
As someone stated, their intention is actually for you to use the roundabout, there isn’t really another way around the issue. Initially they had blocked of that slip road but then everyone complained so much they re-opened it.
If people only used the slip road to get onto to South Sound in the morning, it should work very well because there are actually very few cars who come onto South Sound road from the opposite side of the roundabout. Most of the cars that stop the line of traffic flowing directly onto South Sound are the drivers who are entering and immediately exiting the roundabout. And I have a feeling many of them are doing it to cut in front of other cars, not to be “safe”. It is not safe, as it forces the drivers using the slip road to completely turn around in their car to look behind them. I remember when they closed off the slip road. It created a very big backlog at the roundabout as everyone was forced to use it. So if people would simply only use the slip road to get onto South Sound, and not go on the roundabout, the traffic should flow more smoothly. Thankfully the problem in front of Red Bay school (again, caused by selfish drivers) has been resolved, so I’d love to see a solution here too. I guess if you want to eliminate the slip road, then add a third lane to the roundabout!
I agree with you, but I think it is a bit more difficult with this one to find a solution.
I am one of those people and I do it because I just cannot turn and see the traffic at that slip road without straining my neck, the angle is wrong. So I apologise for that, but after suffering a week of intense pain once after turning my neck too sharply and always finding that I had a problem, I switched. And before you guffaw, remember not everyone has the same type of car or the same body shape or height etc. so different folks are affected differently in the same situation…For example – try driving out of Selkirk in a small car rather than a taller SUV…the church wall blocks the view almost entirely for those of us in smaller cars, it is so dangerous pulling out there in a smaller car….
The roads here are sometimes badly designed, an engineer friend of mine pointed out that often the slip roads etc are designed as if we drive on the right…..the repairs being carried out now on the Red Bay Roundabout are because camber is wrong (adverse), but previously at the Red Bay Roundabout they had to alter the angles of the exit and entry points because they were designed as if we were driving on the right…..then they scored the road because of the camber, to give more grip….it is a disgrace that such poor road design was allowed in the first place, causing so much expense now to put right.
Again I apologise for not using the Hurley’s slip road, but it is NOT to try and bypass the queue, which is not normally much of a queue, but to save me from pain…..
IF the road was direct on to South Sound, as the first poster said, that would solve my problem…..but there will always be people who want to go on that road other than directly from the East, how do we provide for them? Say I live in Sunrise and have come home from GT via Hurley’s to shop? I would have to go down to Red Bay Roundabout and come back? More traffic then holding us up….or will you make me go up to Kings Roundabout and down the road to South Sound there?
I was told they used the wrong tarmac on the roundabout in the first place, the camber is only slight and should allow water to drain off the road and not accumulate in the centre. They scored the road to give it some grip, but should just have resurfaced it. Next time you drive it, compare the surface to the Hurley’s roundabout. BTW you would be the exception on not using the slip road as a way to get round 3 or 4 cars.
How do you know I am the exception? Have you surveyed every driver who does this? I can’t be the only person who finds it particularly difficult to turn back to see the traffic coming off the roundabout, in fact the other poster who replied to this post mentioned it in his post too…that poster said “It is not safe as it forces the drivers using the slip road to completely turn round in their car to look behind them” Both posts were posted at the same time so one was not a reaction to the other. So at least one other person even if they use the slip road, acknowledges that the slip road is badly designed.
If your car doesn’t work for you and you have to break/bend traffic laws, to drive then you should consider getting another car.
No one is suggesting the driver is bending or breaking traffic laws, only that the bad design of the roads and poor enforcement of Roads Law against adjacent property owners and developers affects people different ways in the same situation. Are you suggesting that, because a wall has been built too close to the road (ie perhaps not allowing for the prescribed set back in the Roads Law) so that a driver in a normal saloon car does not have clear unimpeded sight of oncoming (fast) traffic, but a person sitting higher up in an SUV has a better, less impeded view, in the same place, the solution to that is no one on the Island drives a saloon car (or similar height vehicle) in case they happen to need to pull out of Selkirk Drive one day??? It is certainly NOT breaking or bending the Traffic Law or The Traffic Code to use a roundabout instead of a slip road.
The solution there might be to have a barrier across the exit to the roundabout at certain times, then you would not need to stop and turn to look. I would think at the moment anyone who thinks they can use the slip road without stopping to check is breaking/bending the Law. There are two solid lines there which mean you are obliged to stop and check before proceeding on to South Sound Road. Assertions that few cars come all round the roundabout there are based on impression not fact, you can never be sure that a car won’t be exiting the roundabout there, so on the slip road you should always slow, stop, check and then drive on to South Sound….
Left hand drive cars should not be allowed to be imported to and/or licensed for use on roads in the Cayman Islands. It’s really that simple.
Agree, but just to be clear, as the poster re neck pain I am NOT driving a Left Hand Drive car…
So you just ruled out every American made car manufacturer to be banned in Cayman…
I agree,
Unfortunately the only way to fix it is to shut the slip road
They could switch the right of way so that the slip road has the right of way but that could have other consequences so a bit of a difficult one.
Please fix Selkirk Drive while your in the neighborhood!!!
It is long overdue!!!
Why wasn’t this done properly the first time? Its a straight-forward, easy job for engineers to exercise foresight into the road requirements given terrain, flooding and expected traffic volume. How hard is it? Seriously, what an incredible waste of resources and display of incompetence.
Exactly! The fact that they now have to dig all this up and re do the whole thing over is so baffling. It’s just costing us more! These things need to be done right the first time! There’s no room for mistakes.
Too true! Why wasn’t it done right the first time around? And whilst they’re at it another design flaw is that throughout the island’s 4-lane roads, the medians have no turning access for emergency vehicles only. If an ambulance or fire truck or police vehicle needs to rapidly change direction, they have to drive all the way down to a roundabout to turn around! Furthermore, why don’t they place yellow raised warning bumps on the approach to the 15 mph school zones like they do for the roundabouts? This would alert motorists that they have to slow down whilst driving through a school zone.
I want to know how they think that if the majority of the residents who cannot even use a two lane round-about, how will they be able to use a three…..
In court the judge said that a woman was in the wrong for being in the inner lane when she was taking the second exit…said that even though she was right, she was in the wrong…guess I will be using the outer lane of every round-about now….
The default is the outer lane for 2nd exit, inner lane can be used if there are two exit roads, and it goes further that if your exit is blocked by a car on your left you should go round. There shouldn’t be a car on your left as overtaking on roundabouts isn’t allowed, but the premis is if you can avoid a collision it’s your duty to do so. So she was right (ish) but still in the wrong. The use of the outer lane comes from the starting point that you should be in the left lane at all times on a dual carriageway, unless overtaking, or turning right (immediately, not a mile down the road). So to use the inside lane to go straight would start by having to change lanes, hence the end rule on roundabouts. In Cayman, although having that same rule, we tend to adopt the American use where both lanes are used and there’s no lane discipline, overtaking on the left and right, and just picking a lane based on your end destination.
Why is it that we have to wait for election time before our politicians finally pull their finger out and start hastily repairing and rushing into building more substandard roads? This crazy cycle continues. I’ll bet that no sooner than the new black top has set, the water main and other underground utilities will be dug up for whatever reason and a duct-tape like repair made to the surface again. Please prove me wrong this time.
‘the action man’..arden mclean…. needs to be grilled on why his roads need to be re-done 5 years after construction…..
He would need to pay an independent consultant to get the answers.
Hopefully the NRA will publish detailed illustrations of the traffic flow patterns before each phase begins
I like what I’m seeing from this organization, looks like positive changes, hopefully it continues
Yea lets eat some roads……go PPM