New diversion plan set for Monday morning jam

| 06/10/2019 | 65 Comments

(CNS): As the ministry responsible for roads and infrastructure along with the police continue to wrestle with the best way to address the mounting traffic congestion from the east, the RCIPS traffic unit has announced another new traffic diversion for Monday. Anton Bodden Drive will be temporarily closed to westbound traffic between 6:00 and 8:00am each morning this week. Police said traffic travelling westward along Bodden Town Road, towards George Town, will not be permitted to turn onto Anton Bodden Drive during these hours. Local access will be permitted and eastbound traffic will be unaffected.

“This closure is being implemented in consultation with our partner agencies, in response to concerns from members of the community regarding traffic issues in the area,” the RCIPS explained adding, that it was at this point a trial only. Officers said it will be in effect until Friday, 11 October, after which it will be re-evaluated.

The police also reminded the driving public to follow all traffic directions given by police officers.


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Category: Local News

Comments (65)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    How about an investment in public transport? Or making the roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists?
    Less cars = less congestion!

  2. Anonymous says:

    Caymanians….complaints….government is only trying to resolve issues such as the traffic problem…90 + % of vehicles has one person driving into town…why don’t we organize car pooling within our neighborhood….it is a “win win” situation… if there is four people arranging to car pool for a month on a rota system, your car can be parked for three weeks out of the month, $$$$aving on fuel…wear and tear etc …..less traffic….problem solved….by the way..i am a Caymanian.

  3. No vote of confidence says:

    Ahh yes..our great wise leaders can’t even handle traffic jams on this tiny island but!.. we’re made to believe they know what they’re doing with the port?

  4. Anonymous says:

    If you are travelling from east of Anton Bodden Road, say EE, NS, Pease Bay, etc, you would understand and appreciate why this is being done.
    The beginning of the traffic problem starts in Bodden Town when persons travelling west on Shamrock Road take a right turn at Anton Bodden Road by the Police station, and then proceed to the west exit next to the BT Primary School.
    They then either force themselves out, or is given a “bly” to once again enter the main traffic in front of many drivers they would have been in back of, had they stayed on the road.
    Multiply this by dozens of times each morning and I believe you get the picture.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    So can we get a sign ahead that a lane is closed? Or is it better to wait until you see the police vehicle parked, closing off the lane?

  6. Anonymous says:

    so tonight the muppets have closed off the left lane at linford pearson so crew road can join. According to google maps it’s now 20 mins longer to go down the highway than crew road. (17:30) the problem is hurleys this bit although slow was doing fine. Put in a flyover at Hurleys first.

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    • Anonymous says:

      People using the outer lane there were using the roundabout incorrectly so I’m okay with this change.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Explain why my tax money went towards expanding the one lane to a double only to eventually block the additional lane so crewe road (NOT A HIGHWAY) can flow faster???

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        • Anonymous says:

          This evening it took me 63 minutes to get from Eastern Avenue to Hurley’s roundabout, it took me 8 minutes to get from Hurley’s to Countryside Mall (within the speed limits!). Just sayin!!!

        • Anonymous says:

          People in the outside lane coming off the bypass and heading towards Hurley’s are actually breaking the law, Crewe road should have exclusive use of the outside lane going towards Hurley’s.

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          • Anonymous says:

            You need to take your driving test again. Kings Sport Center is not even off the round about. If you are coming from LPH, then you should use the outside lane of the round about to turn into Kings. The problem is, all these round about built but no one knows how to use them, not even the police.

            • Anonymous says:

              Because that’s where everyone in the outside lane is going, yeah right! I don’t see a single person turn there during traffic and the lane is full of cars from LPH

      • Anonymous says:

        It’s two lanes in and two lanes out, they were not using it incorrectly.

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  7. Anonymous says:

    Once again this is a problem I can sort out if only us lowly uneducated, untravelled expats had a voice at the table instead of the esteemed graduates of these islands education system that find themselves in office… that aside….I’ll give you this one for free. Not that traffic bothers me as I don’t live out east. Here’s the solution…. and if CIG do it, I want to be appointed Minister of Common Sense on $120,000 a year. Build one extra lane. Simple eh! Have a moving divider that allows two / three lanes coming in to town in the mornings. Half way through the day – switch the divider, two / three lanes going out of town in the afternoons / evenings. They do it in Australia and other places and seems to work fine. Combine that with a couple of park and rides on the outside of town… an odd tram up from a multi story car park around some vacant plots in Midtown Plaza – maybe a couple of others whizzing straight up and down the central reservation and you’re away! You’re welcome!

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Can we stop people turning right onto Shamrock Road at the Chrissie Tomlinson roundabout (then past Da Kitchin and the Brewery etc), which is making it impossible for anyone on Admirals, Victory Ave, Prospect Drive, Marina Drive, Mahogany Way and Mangrove from getting off of their bloody streets? Any school drop offs for Red Bay and Lighthouse, can turn right at the car wash roundabout.

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  9. Anonymous says:

    Is there an actual map showing what is going to happen?

  10. Anonymous says:

    Might as well I go back to Canada,
    When we first moved here in 2016 we could leave home BT at 7:30 and get to work before 830 dropping off kids along the way. Now we are leaving at 6:00 to “avoid” hours in traffic and still getting in at 8:30 beginning to miss the sleet and snow with justified traffic issues.

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  11. Anonymous says:

    At least they are trying things. It seems to me that nothing will improve until the bottlenecks are dealt with but you never know.

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    • Eliza says:

      Yes, agreed, good to try new approaches and sees what helps. Another method which has worked elsewhere is to say no car can come into GT from the east, between say 7am and 9am, unless it has at least two passengers in it. The police could easily monitor this at the Hurley’s roundabout.
      Anything half-sensible worth a try at this truly desperate point.

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  12. Anonymous says:

    You should close red bay rd to through traffic from the east in the mornings. That makes sense. Not this.

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  13. Anonymous says:

    Why do WE always look to someone else (Govt) to fix this issue? How many of those complaining are prepared to do something. Say carpool to work, ride a bus, joint school drop off or use the bus service, pay increasing costs for each car at your residence, pay for parking, etc.

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    • Anonymous says:

      The buses suck and I wouldn’t trust my life in some of the drivers of the buses. Otherwise I would.

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      • Anonymous says:

        I agree. There just needs to be a marginal improvement in the buses and I will take them. They need to pick up and drop off people at the desired locations, even when they aren’t friends with that passenger, and there needs to be a monthly bus pass.

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        • Anonymous says:

          Not until they are certified overseas as public bus drivers. None of them would pass.

          • Anonymous says:

            It’s because they are all from a neighboring island, where anything goes when it comes to driving. Then they bring those bad habits on our streets. Why is there not a different license and test for public transport operators?

  14. Anonymous says:

    and you trust these bunch of clowns to get the port built?

    They can’t even manage a traffic jam!

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    • Anonymous says:

      They are not clowns, they are a bunch of schleprocks.
      A schleprock is someone who is posing as a person of power, but in reality has none, a total loser who will never amount to anything.

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      • Anonymous says:

        I learned a new word today! It’s too long and hard to say and not appropriate in this case because these clowns actually have the power presented to them by a bunch of schleprock voters.

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        • Anonymous says:

          LOL. Either way it is fine with me.

        • Anonymous says:

          To have power = capability of doing or accomplishing something, great or marked ability to do or act.
          They have neither capabilities nor accomplishments. So they’re schleprocks.

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          • Anonymous says:

            They accomplished getting elected, making many of them now “honourable”. In the Cayman Islands, that’s the height of personal accomplishment. Of course, they ain’t doing squat for the rest of us, but it’s every man for himself around here!

  15. Anonymous says:

    I drive to Hurley’s at 7am every morning and it usually takes me less than 5 minutes there and back, today it took 15 minutes in each direction!

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  16. Anonymous says:

    So we close off the road that is wider, and much faster to travel than the narrow, uneven and obstructed main BT road??!! Ah, logic is being used here I see.

    Wouldn’t it made more sense to close off BT main road, and make the traffic flow through Anton Bodden road??!! Giving the vehicles exiting Anton Bodden right of way so there was limited interruption to the flow.

    But instead, we choose to force more cars along the worst stretch off road on the island. Brilliant Joe, just BRILLIANT!

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    • Anonymous says:

      Still not helped when you finally get to South Sound (south church street) & the traffic is backed up to San Sebastian at 8.30 am & there’s only one cruise ship in!!
      Please put more traffic cops in GT stopping the wandering tourists from treating harbour drive like a stroll around Disney- ignoring pedestrian crossings or going across one by one & stopping to take selfies!
      How do we think we can sort traffic out if a huge dock is added when we can’t fix it now?!?

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      • Anonymous says:

        It took me 40 minutes to go 2.5 miles down South Sound Road to George Town, leaving at 8:05. And you’re quite right on the problem – no one is controlling when and how the tourists cross the street. Once the cruise ship piers are built and even more tourists arrive earlier, it will get much, much worse.

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        • Anonymous says:

          Keep pestering the NRA to get proper pedestrian crossing signs & lights installed.

          • Anonymous says:

            ‘Proper’ like the ones on West Bay Road & Smiths Cove that allow pedestrians to push the button & the lights immediately tell the traffic to stop? Then immediately allows another person to push & cross?

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        • Anonymous says:

          That’s literally walking speed. You might as well have pulled over and got out.

  17. Mervyn Cumber says:

    Anton Bodden Drive is the by-pass! So why close it. Better ,put a Stop sign at the Primary School end and make Bodden Town residents Stop, and allow East traffic continuous movement.

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  18. Anonymous says:

    Vote NO to the new port. Stayover tourism is more profitable and requires fewer permits and vehicles.

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  19. Anonymous says:

    ???…is this aprils fools day???

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  20. Anonymous says:

    Joey – it is suggested you inform Mac and Alden that as they created the mess they created they need to find the solution.of the overflowing traffic problem. Mac and Alden are importing too many people who have to get to work every day to earn a pittance at $6 Minimum Wage.

    My Mom always required me to clean up my own mess.

    Mac and Alden have only one plan, get the population to 100,000 as fast as possible, then the next 100,000 as soon as possible after that, just to satisfy their controllers.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Don’t waste your breath. Joey couldn’t arrange a piss up in his best friends brewery.

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    • Anonymous says:

      8.50pm And your one plan? Criticize Mac and Alden? Wow

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      • Anonymous says:

        What is there not to criticize? They are both failures to our country. Too much egos and arrogance. I bet you will wote for them next come ’round, sheep.

    • Anonymous says:

      We’re having serious traffic problems now with 65,000 odd population, just imagine what it’ll be like if it were 100,000. Roads simply would not be to cope, we would all be getting to work at 10:00 am

  21. Anonymous says:

    Thanks for clearing the way for those of us town side of Grand Harbour

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    • Anonymous says:

      I don’t know much about closing and opening roads but blocking a road cannot help the traffic flow, it impedes it.? It might make it easier for some for awhile but hinders others. In other words it just causes a bottle neck in other spots. Why don’t they put traffic cops at various spots to intermittently halt then allow the traffic like a traffic light would do. Of course they would need to communicate by radio to know when to stop or go. Does the traffic department/ministry even know why it has gotten so bad recently? To fix a problem one has to first identify the problem.

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    • Anonymous says:

      All this new “no diversion” will do is impede drivers from the east. Wha happen they don’t need to get to work on time. . This isnt fair to them, more like discrimination to me.

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