NRA to open bids for EIA on E-W Arterial extension
(CNS): The National Roads Authority is about to begin the search for consultants to conduct an environmental impact assessment to extend the East-West Arterial Road as far as Frank Sound. NRA Director Edward Howard said work was underway to get the procurement documents posted soon as possible, given the commitment the PACT Government has made to that road expansion.
But Eastern District commuters say the real traffic woes for them are from Prospect to Grand Harbour, and Howard said that is where the real challenges are.
Speaking at a recent public meeting in Prospect, which was hosted by Health Minister Sabrina Turner, who is the district MP, and broadcast on Radio Cayman, Howard outlined the ongoing work and the plans the NRA has for the area.
While work is now underway on the stretch of East-West Arterial from Hirst Road to Woodland Drive, there are several issues that could prove controversial for the further expansion of that road to Frank Sound.
This stretch of road poses a direct threat to the Central Mangrove Wetlands. The current proposed route would also result in the fragmentation of the wetlands, compounding the environmental threat to this critical habitat, which is already under threat from encroaching residential development.
However, the necessity for the road remains in question since the cause of the congestion problems is the Prospect-Red Bay area.
Most of the Eastern District commuter troubles lie in the bottleneck around Grand Harbour, and that is where drivers are keen to see the NRA invest its time and money. But Howard pointed out that the island is only three-quarters of a mile wide at that point, which presents a significant problem, and said that Cayman would have to re-think its transport issues in the future.
Traffic congestion from the east has surged again, as the number of people in isolation fell rapidly over the last two weeks and employees who had been working from home through the peak of the COVID-19 community spread are returning to the office.
As a result, there has been a return of horrendous traffic jams during the morning and evening commute, and people are once again taking to social media to vent their frustrations. Traffic is now bumper to bumper from sunrise during the morning commute and as late as 8pm in the evenings, as people travel to and from George Town.
Howard warned that this was only going to get worse, given that the fastest growing residential areas were all east of Prospect. He said the government would need to look at public transportation and encourage people out of their cars.
“Prospect is the constrained area,” he said, as he explained the need for all drivers coming from anywhere in the east to pass through that narrow point to get to town. “The challenge for me and my team is how do we eke every bit of capacity out of that little section of roadway that we have.”
The director said that the NRA was widening the Hurley-Merren Boulevard between Grand Harbour and Chrissie Tomlinson roundabout to six lanes. But in order to encourage people out of their cars, it was important to balance road safety with such wide highways, noting the need for bike lanes and pedestrian crossings and a reduction in the speed limit.
Work is also expected to restart to widen the Linford Pierson Highway, which is another major area of congestion.
Howard pointed out that the congestion was caused by the way planning and zoning have rolled out over the years. “A lot of it has to do… when we look back… at how we decided to plan. A lot of traffic situations grow out of how we decide to do land-use planning, how we zone our land,” he said.
The intense development now in the Grand Harbour area, including new commercial as well as residential projects, is likely to put even more pressure on the traffic amid growing concerns for commuters.
Given the resurgence in traffic, the relief for commuters from the completion of the additional lanes along Shamrock Road from Grand Harbour towards the Red Bay roundabout is likely to be short-lived, as some of the major developments in the area are completed over the coming months.
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Category: development, Local News
First of all u sold all the queen land second of all the only way to make it work is to build a bridge from north side to town and that should kill everything call traffic! What is the sense of making 6 lane roads if it still end up to 1 road
As a resident of Red Bay for 26 years I have watched all the road changes made from Grand Harbour to the next roundabout going east ( the car wash roundabout).
Going East and west along that section of road has always bottlenecked at Grand Harbour.
As their never seemed to be forward thinking going into the rise in population and more cars on the roads, whatever changes made to improve the flow of traffic only last a short time.
Planning doesn’t seem to go hand in hand with NRA sadly. Developments were given permission to build alongside that area of Shamrock Road. There is no space left for any future road changes. Thank
A FLYOVER AT GRAND HARBOUR IS THE ONLY ANSWER.
It will be expensive but I am of the opinion that spending money on consultants on environmental impact on assessment to extend East-West arterial road should be shelved and spend the money on the REAL PROBLEM.
Many people keep saying this many times over the years, but it never reaches the “experts” ears.
While improved roads are necessary we will NEVER be able to build our way out of congestion. Only reducing the number of vehicles on the roads will do that.
Therefore without an improved, proffessional public transport (bus) system the improved roads will soon be full. Just like building a larger closet.
With improved public transport many persons will realise that they do not need a vehicle with all the associated costs.
The NRA commenting on traffic congestion is certainly ironic especially if you read their comments on the majority of developments in the Agenda for the meetings of the Central Planning Authority (https://www.planning.ky/cpa/#meetings). The conclusion of the in-depth analyses of the impact of traffic expected to be generated by the majority of developments is usually: “Based on these estimates, the impact of the proposed development onto “Whatever” Road
is considered to be minimal.”
What about all those developments that will suffer with a big road in their backyards? People need to sue!
Perhaps an inevitable increase in gasoline prices will persuade commuters to car pool or take public transport, if it was efficient, to reduce the number of cars on the road. In addition, ban the import of cars older than five years.
They just need a big flyover at Hurleys, straight over if you are going East, its the only answer.
One lane going east and one lane going west with a divider in the middle is all it would take. Like express lanes in the USA
will make zero difference to traffic congestion.
absolute madness.
just another day in wonderland
One of the problems is that they (the US trained road engineers) build American sized roads and roundabouts on a small Caribbean island…which means that traffic only gets faster not free flowing!
Don’t blame us. We don’t do roundabouts. Traffic lights are better, but more expensive.
It’s a fact that traffic signals are more dangerous with with fatalities being a regular occurrence: due to T-bone collisions. Generally, people don’t die on roundabouts….unless its’s 3am, and then I’m sure we all know what the true cause was. The “all knowing” USA is wising up and is deploying roundabouts all across the USA as a means to improve access, capacity and safety. maybe we are ahead of the curve…
Faster not free flowing?….come again
Problem: too many cars. Someone builds a wall that requires five workers – you will see five cars parked on the roadside (mainly the Honda Fit). Seems like every helper also has one, even if it is rented.
So? That’s terribly selfish. You can drive but if they make less than you they can’t. Gotcha.
Grand Cayman has outgrown our small-town committees and nepotistic SAGCs. They are no longer suitable substitutes for educated reliance. We lack qualified Urban Planners (esp. those with 21st thinking) and a dedicated Urban Planning department. By the looks of their efforts, PLA and NRA barely have competent engineers and supervisors on the job, let alone a unified actionable plan. So much money is wasted on annual misfires that we could more than afford the full-time professional salaries of two or three MUP credentialed and senior Urban Planners from a big city. Tough luck if some feelings get hurt, but its past time for some proper help, and oversight – and not temporary consultants or circle-filed reports!
We need a bridge from Savannah to Camana Bay. Nothing else will help with traffic that feeds into mulitple 1 lane roads into central GT.
Monorail!
nutty talk.
First let’s say it was crazy to think we could increase population to hundred thousand. Which we hav’nt reach as yet!.
Then lets consider encouraging more bussinesses to move east, because we are all headed in one direction at the same time.
If we think together we might find a solution
Perhaps you increase density in GT and stop development in BT and east.
There is something seriously wrong with the design of all these new roads and roundabouts because as soon as they are built NRA have to put plastic bollards out to split the lanes! What’s that all about!
that’s all about drivers having poor lane discipline.
Have NRA had any Board meetings since this new Board was appointed? Have they produced minutes at all? Should these not be for public viewing?
They have never answered any letter I’ve written to them.
Are NRA dealing with the landowners affected and advising them individually of the delays or do they have to find all this out from the press? Have they compensated any of the landowners yet? How many years has it been since they first gazetted this road – 15 years….? and only now asking for an EIA?
That would be an interesting article to read “How many landowners have been paid a fair compensation and how did it take for NRA to pay from the date of the gazette?” Also how many landowners have still outstanding claims and for how long?
Yes, Unity-PPM were ruthless with compulsory purchase of private land by government.
The East-West Arterial road to Frank sound road can help. If we can understand that the growth of population is going to grow even faster. We can’t stop it. It is going to be cheaper to buy property in the Central Mangrove. How many of you wouldn’t want to buy land at CI$20,000 an acre? Even if you have to fill? Where are all the Quarries? Cheapest cost of fill and transportation. The Central Mangrove IS the land that makes sense to build on. The environmental boundary needed for sea life and hurricanes is 1000 feet from the sea. Can’t you see that all the damage in Cayman was by the sea? We shouldn’t have allowed any construction on the oceanfront at all.
Even in Florida on the west side, miles and miles of no construction.
Town with all the buildings is the problem. The center of this island will allow for more flow of traffic and lowest price of property in Grand Cayman. Think of it as the center of a circle and leaving to go to EE, NS, SAV, GT and West Bay. That would be the solution.
Large properties on the west of this island like, Camana Bay, Ritz Carlton will continue to be built. It will be a matter of fact that more billionaires will come and build in the swampland. We can’t stop it. Look at the history of Plant and Flagler in Florida. Two men created Florida, same Geography as Cayman (swampland and beach).
You are the definition of a troll. Sadly fools believe this kind if claptrap.
I dont get how widening roads fixes anything. They are basically creating a funnel from point A (prosepct area) to point b (GT area), 3 lanes which goes into 2 lanes which goes into 1 lane.
The issue is the amount of roundabouts, turings on and off and the volume of trafic from prospect / east into town. It was planned terribly in the first place and they now have no idea how to fix it.
agreed. adding lanes on part of a road simply causes more congestion as all cars speed up only to jam on the brakes as everyone tries to merge. turning lanes help with the flow, shamrock would be better if the third lane was used for turning lanes for both directions
We continue to increase the population without making the required infrastructure investments. This is a failure of successive governments who don’t really care about Caymanians or our environment. Talk about sustainable development and growth have just been political lies.
Any EIA required for the decimated low income housing area. Every plant, tree, except the silver thatch were flattened. Where was the national trust on this one? Oh yes they spoke to Minister Jay after to see how it could be developed in a sustainable way….cone on. Joke and pie in everyone face. Would have been nice to leave trees around each house to reduce the CUC bills for these low income earners. I guess another reason this arterial is needed. For all this low income earner traveling to town for all the high income jobs….joke. we can only make 6 $ still. You can’t make up the foolishness of this. Cone on national trust, make a statement…come on tree huggers and environmental groups where were you? Cone on Hon.Premier who created the conservation law….nothing was conserved. All lost and ready for expat low income plants and people. Smh
It may be valid that entire forests were clearcut, sprayed with toxic herbicide, and filled to build those housing projects. We can only guess most with no EIA requested or submitted under various CPAs. Past lenience (or overt corruption) doesn’t mean that an EIA isn’t necessary now for any future development or road. The demented logic path would be like suggesting that someone else got away with a crime, so I should be able to do that too. Justice doesn’t work like that.
There is that darn word again: ‘consultants’
…And the cost of real estate in West Bay has gone through the roof, with people clamoring to move down here. Hmm I guess WB is not so scorned anymore?…
HMM, just “some” areas of WB def not all
Island shut for 2-years, % of population confined to homes for 2-years, and nothing has been accomplished. Airport Bypass not complete, North Sound Way Extension not complete, Shamrock Widening not complete, East-West Arterial not complete, and the list goes on!
The resurgence is traffic is real, now that we all allowed out of the house and called back to the office. Just wait until all the flights resume, and then the cruise ship taxi’s.
The easiest and quickest way to alleviate many traffic issues would be for more remote work days for those who can do the same work at home. It will take years to engineer and build the roads.
Simply make at least half of the workweek remote.
Thanks PPM for nothing!
Can’t wait to hear Ezzard and Harris’s issues with this one.
Instead of destroying more mangrove and with raising sea levels for the next generations to deal with, here are few suggestions that won’t cost the people a thing
1/ planning and nra to work together and agree/decide on future developments.
2/ provide incentives to businesses for employees to work from home or a flexible time work schedule than peak hours.
3/ dump trucks and heavy equipment operators should be fined if caught on the road at peak times
4/ limit the amount of cars being imported to the island
Paving the way whole island is not only destructive, it is not going solve the bottle necking problems.
The government could easily ascertain how many workers could work remote and join with the Chamber and CITA and agree to make more workers remote.
I imagine that there would be thousands who could be remote workers thereby removing thousands of vehicles from the roads during peak times, reducing congestion, accidents and emissions.
Simple and effective.
Newsflash. Quarry trucks are on the road 16 hours a day. How else can you export East End to fill every square inch of the island.
Park and Ride service:
Ferry service (using Bermuda-style ferries; enclosed with air conditioning etc) weekdays from Spotts or Red Bay (and/or or other) to Camana Bay. Run during morning and afternoon rush hour. Give it a shot for a year.
Also, proper busses (ie, REAL busses with proper uncramped seats with aisles, not little vans) that run the rush hour routes. Dont have to replace the whole fleet, just a handful of these.
Quick, build the road so Uncle Dart can get to his bike path faster. Seeing as using his chopper is out of the question, for now.
You all can’t drive on one lane and you gonna add more lanes? And a highway type of road no less when you have more accidents than any jurisdiction when speeds are low. Whose bright idea is this? Where you all heading so fast anyhow? It’s an island and you on island time.
Witnessed a bloke in a Chevy truck speeding like a maniac on Walker’s Road once he passed the schools. Most likely driving 70 plus MPH. RCIPS should set up radar on that portion and catch this jerk.
I dont understand how widening the road by grand harbour and reducing the speed limit will increase traffic flow?? makes no sense!! If you widen a road the logical thing is to increase speed limit so the traffic flows faster! All road engineers know that basic principle except ours!
Because they can’t exit from three lanes to two to one faster than they do from two to one now. So you add a third lane but make it go slower, like a parking lot. More cars side by side means a shorter tailback towards Bodden Town.
We may not like it, but it makes sense for the NRA who can’t do anything but build roads. Like the man said this needs public transport and better national planning. All he can do is manage the roads.
Major problem areas: The long unfinished Bobby Thompson Way expansion, The need for an overpass (with exits) from Linford Pierson Highway to at least just east of Prospect, the extension of the East / West Arterial from Newlands to at least Pease Bay. The sections where wetlands habitat are a concern – build on stilts similar to many low lying areas of Louisiana.
Absolutely – an overpass (like the one on the bypass past the Kimpton) which would go past Hurley’s would help tremendously. Once you are past that roundabout, the traffic flows! And before people start complaining about losing the “quaintness” of the island, who in their right minds think that area is quaint now???
The main problem is lack of land, exasperated by the explosion of new buildings in the Hurley’s / Grand Harbour area. It seems like the only way is an overpass and can’t imagine that being possible either – time,money, engineering, impact to existing traffic while in construction etc. a real dilemma. Glad I don’t live on that side of the island but feel for those who do.
Where is the public consultation on these new roads!
Public consultation??? What’s that?
Sssh. Politicians and their friends own the land around it. No need for you to be consulted.
Wow…only now starting the EIA! Cart before the horse…they should have had this done and the road design in place before they gazetted the road path. It is unfair on the owners that are having their land compulsory acquired as NRA have frozen the land value while it takes years for them to build it and eventually agree the compensation and then pay it!
You mean they pay compensation?
I hope they will also look at the impact of not buiding the road.
of building the road you mean?
The Hurleys roundabout needs to be converted to a highway interchange with on/off ramps. The stables need to get sorted, then four lanes to GT. I wonder how drivers will be able to negotiate on/off ramps though.
Not a bloody chance. I can see the pileups now!
6 lane traffic light interchange with turning lanes, no roundabout. The stables are not in the way. There is undeveloped land on the other side of the road if the NRA would adjust their plans a little.
A failure to plan is a plan to fail
So, PACT, any of the Ministries responsible going to address the issues identified (lack of planning; lack of proper public transport plan)?
Just get the road built!
A full year without road constructions now escalates – instead of using slow traffic during the pandemic to resolve bottlenecks and plan ahead.
Yeah – typical – ignore the complicated issues and distract with the simple. Whatever happened to the half finished road between north church street and eastern avenue?
You say “Howard pointed out that the congestion was caused by the way planning and zoning have rolled out over the years”. Well how about that! And some of us thought it was too many cars and not enough room for them on the road. And how many years ago was that? Do we really have smart people taking care of the necessary road problems for us?
O.K. …….. Why not!
I think he means lack of planning…zoning has not changed in years.
But the real problem is at the Grand Harbour Roundabout. Until that problem is solved we will be no further ahead.
The East – West Arterial is going to make no difference in anything until the Grand Harbour problem is addressed. All it will mean is that drivers will get to the Grand Harbour mess faster on weekdays.
If they are serious about solving the traffic congestion problems than they MUST sort of the western end of Linford Pierson Highway which has been held up for years because of the owners of the Horse Ranch not wanting to give up any land and having enough political clout on both sides of the Parliament to do so.
They simply cannot pave their way of this mess. They could have 10 lanes going in to Town but the problem is not in the amount of lanes but rather what happens when you get there. And that bottleneck is the main reason for the congestion.
Also there are other solutions which should be considered before spending millions of dollars and disrupting peoples’ lives in building unnecessary highways which will only become expensive race tracks for more people to die on.