LP highway project to cut GT traffic jams
(CNS): Phase 2 of the Linford Pierson Highway widening project gets underway on Monday. The National Roads Authority said that when it’s finished it will “significantly reduce traffic” on Huldah Avenue and Crewe Road during the evening peak hour, while cutting traffic queues and travel times for the morning commute.
The current two lanes will be widened to six between Agnes Way Roundabout and the traffic signal at Bobby Thompson Way and Smith Road.
This is one of a number of road enhancements that the government is funding in an effort to build its way out of the endless traffic jams experienced by commuters from the Eastern Districts, which happen largely as a result of the bottlenecks at Hurley’s Roundabout and this area of the Linford Pierson Highway.
While the development of a new public transport policy is in its infancy and the hope of more remote working appears to have withered and died, despite evidence of its success during the pandemic lockdown, the development of roads carries on apace.
This latest road project will feature a raised solid grass median, enhanced drainage and street lighting. During the project, which is anticipated to take about 16 months, the National Road Authority will use segments of the current roadway to implement a temporary road scheme. This will provide some immediate relief from congestion while crews work on placement of utilities and expansion of lanes for the permanent scheme.
All road users are asked to proceed through the construction zone with extra caution, watching out for signs and road markings as lane configuration may change periodically throughout the duration of construction.
Jay Ebanks, the minister with responsibility for infrastructure, said the PACT government was committed to the road projects across Grand Cayman.
“The teams at the NRA have been implementing a number of improvement projects that will make a real difference to road users, whether drivers, cyclists or pedestrians,” he said. “We understand there are still a number of concerns but through innovation and resourcefulness, we will be able to tackle this issue effectively.”
For more information about the project call the NRA on 946 7780 or email nra@nra.ky
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Category: development, Local News
Cayman will never have a good traffic solution. No matter the ideas or problems with them as there is not enough expertise to figure out things that are so complex as roads. Or a functional dump. Or a weather radar. Just get used to dysfunctional and be happy.
A large %age of cars should not be on the road in any case. If the testing for a license was as stringent as say in the UK the roads would be clearer and safer. My guess is that if a simple emissions test was introduced a huge number of cars would be gone.
BUILDING MORE ROADS IS NOT THE SOLUTION , STOP IMPORTING SO MUCH CARS EVERY YEAR
And people…… it’s called over crowding..
And people…… it’s called over crowding..
NRA had a road engineer, what do they have now..?
A clusterfarce
from the peole who said building new roads is not the answer to the traffic issue…..yep, they are building more roads…..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I think they are widening the roads, not building more. There is a difference.
Would be nice if they were building more but we didn’t plan for traffic so this is the only route we have to get into town.
free money making solutions:
Sell goab and build new goab east of frank sound.
or
bring in car-pool lanes and congestion charge for single occupancy vehicles that come through hurleys roundabout morning or evening peak times.
Are you saying more money out the averages persons pocket where the cost of living is already the highest in the world?
car-pooling is free and is a win-win for everybody
Some places (in Europe for instance) have carpool chits that riders can purchase and give to drivers to offset the cost of running the car. Not mandatory but community-minded.
Building bridges or highways are the only solution for the traffic. More lanes that have to merge in to a roundabout isn’t working.
The more bridges and highways you build, the less incentive people will have to bike, carpool, use public transport, etc. Losing battle, there.
Why are the NRA board minutes not being published?
It’s really quite simple. If the NRA board minutes were published, it would be opening themselves up to criticism from folks like you. And we wouldn’t want that, now, would we…. /s
A law needs to be created to address the importation of cars by every tom dick and Harry. You must have a valid t and b license, import duties to 100% (Jamaica does this?,no cars older than 7years old. Please would someone have the cojones to do this???? It’s fair game until this changes. Better yet, hire a consultant!
Whilst I agree to some degree with this, it concerns me that cars will become SO EXPENSIVE that only the rich will be able to afford to drive and without a decent system of mass transit it does seem unfair. I won’t be affected but it will be unfair.
Stop importing people!!!!! No matter how many cars are here – you can only drive one at a time! STOP IMPORTING PEOPLE.
how did the horse site stop the road going through their land?
By objecting to it and pointing to all the raw land available on the opposite side of the existing road.
Lawyers 4.48, Lawyers.
I think you already know the answer to this, nepotism.
Family connections
Does the name Roy McTaggart come to mind?
Not really. How long they been divorced and who owns the land?
His daughter…
Awesome. Somewhere different to sit in traffic. Yeayyyyyyh
All this relates to infrastructure , a commodity Cayman fails to understand as demonstrated by no forward planning. As I understand it CIG want to see a population of 100,000, so it is not all about roads, although I do agree that it is a major problem.
The schools will be unable to cope and the utility companies will digging up the roads again. ( By the way have you noticed that WBR has not been free of digging for over ten or more years) . I am not sure about the hospitals but certainly the CIG hospital will be unable to cope. Maybe years ago Ezzard was right in wishing to build a new one. At least he had a crystal ball., unfortunately lost just before the last election.
It gets back to ” who are we developing the island for”. Politicians have used this phrase for years but like forward planning it is overlooked. Perhaps one day the illustrious speaker of the house could study these phrases and introduce them to the LA.
How about landing all the cruisesheep in West Bay instead of G.T. They never spend anything in the GT stores, and prefer to head for Stingray City and the Turtle Farm. They would much prefer this than sitting on benches in Cardinal Ave staring at the new Court House and fring in the sun.
Wider roads don’t solve traffic problems. Any road engineer in any major city will tell you that.
Until Cayman chooses to invest heavily in public and active transport and both subsidise that and penalise private vehicle use, traffic will continue to get worse.
A few ideas:
– CCTV allied to brightly painted bus lanes with CI$100 fines for going in the bus lane. PS this is far less expensive than Cayman experts have so far said.
– free/very cheap public transport from “park and ride” outside GT
– import duties on cars up to 100% (yes, several Caribbean countries have this)
– ban cars with single occupants on roads at peak times (car pooling only)
– copy the London congestion charge system so there are fees to use major roads during peak times.
– businesses actually take learnings from lockdowns and encourage working from home at least 2 days per week plus flex time
– parking within 400 yards of any school banned and no drop off at schools. Link this to school bus services for all public and private schools.
Inconvenient ? Yes. Necessary. Also yes.
Why the dislikes?
I really don’t understand them. These seem affordable, reasonable suggestions to deal with what seems to be an ever increasing problem.
Could one of you please explain?
Thanks.
He used the word “learnings”
Because most of the suggestions would be inffective.
There are two things that will help: 1. creating an alternative to the Hurley’s roundabout which is an extraordinarily expensive problem (tunnel under the runway or bridge over the soundz anyone)? 2. A viable public transportation system.
pass law making cruise ships dock other than george town. Time to spread the wealth.
no more than 2 per dock. So you have GT. WB, Spotts, and finally bodden town.
Eventually more restaurants and business’s will thrive in those locations, spreading out the people.
pretty simple really.
Agree with all of these, add to this list that larger employers with a fleet of cars/vans & trucks must also have a Park & Ride system in place – think of the likes of CUC.
Public transport would be great, especially if you worked at somewhere like Funky Tangs / West Shore Center / Kirk Home Centre. But what would happen if you worked at CUC / Flowers Bottled Water / Holiday Inn / Pappagallo / Cobalt Coast Resort. Lots of people find public transport unviable so you cant punish these people.
Get up earlier and stop making babies. It works
Where did you come from? You’re the exception for being born?
Free Island wide WiFi broadband and public transport.
If we can afford to pay CIG $45,000,000 a month to cover their wages we can afford these facilities to improve everyone’s lives.
Has enyone gotten a ticket for not using your indicators. Industrial park problem is cars trying to reverse on the road from Parkers please note that is against the law in cayman and the roundabout coming out of Seymour Dr. People are giving way to traffic on their left you are to give way to your right on ALL roundabouts. Police do your job.
The car parking in front of Parkers should be closed or modified, its a disaster.
Those folks need to give up their land for the greater good yeah right ! This is the price we must pay because or wutless political dingbats will not stop the importation of cars and persons coming here and who are not contributing to infrastructure up keep but are using it for their own advantage.Just like everywhere else restrict the granting citizenship to those who really deserve it and stop giving it away Cayman.
ya know it takes 16 years to get citizenship right! that’s some big ass restriction right there.
It doesn’t take 16 years if you know , you know who , who can fix it through a “Cabinet grant”.
That’s was 15 years ago, get over it. But there will be another if government doesn’t start approving us who have been here for 15 years almost 16.
Not if u find a stupid Caymanian/Ststus holder to marry. Stop giving Right to work before 10 years of marriage. Stop giving PR and Status before 25 years.
The Minister is grossly out of touch if he thinks this will solve the traffic woes in this area. In fact, he is out of touch in general.
Until an answer is found to the “choke-point” from Kings Sports Hall to Red Bay/Grand Harbour area, there will always be traffic tie-ups there. 16 lanes could be added and nothing will change. Every car leaving GT headed east meets here and the lil playschool road works being done is not addressing this issue.
The only solution to the Kings roundabout and hurleys roundabout is a fly over road or compulsory purchase of Hurleys front carpark ( build a multi story on the side car park) . This creates space to widen the road for new road layout .
Less cars, not more road
This is good news but far more pressing are the Airport Connector and Godfrey Nixon extension. Closing Cardinal Ave should wait until the Godfrey Nixon work is done or there will be huge problems in town. And Industrial Park is a nightmare and will only get worse as tourism increases unless the airport connector is done.
What is sad is that for two years we had Caymanians struggling and lower road traffic both of which could have been helped had these projects not languished throughout.
Now we are going to have to do all these roadworks when the traffic is heavy offering our tourist a true I95-New York or Miami experience. And we are now doing it when Labour costs are poised to jump with more demand and higher expenses globally.
Not to mention all these projects need asphalt – yes – an oil-derived product that is already seeing unprecedented price increases due to the war.
CIG/NRA – congrats on finally commencing some of these works, but no thanks for the massively higher costs to us all as a result of foot dragging the last 2 years….
Finally, a commenter with some sense.
Thank you!
Why not overhead bridge instead of roundabout
Ok here goes. Godfrey Nixon way needs pilons in the middle of the street from the lights to ace hardware. North Sound Rd needs pilons all the way down the center from the Alt round about to the round about infront of parkers. This is a long way but would fix traffic flow. The hurleys roundabout needs an over pass. From Shamrock road to the linfird Pierson. Double labe from the linford Pierson to the most northern part of hirst drive. Then build a bridge over the water (it either this or demolish Hurleys) from that area to the north side of the airport. Close the waterfront to foot traffic. Create a through fair through central George Town. How. Take a couple buildings down. Better now then later. This would fix most of it. There is foods for thought.
I don’t like “foods”
we ain’t Miami but we seem to be building for it- totally unsustainable for a country of this size
Until a traffic engineer figures out how to solve the Grand Harbour roundabout disaster, the arterial roads expansions mean diddly squat.
Honestly there should be no traffic going from Grand harbor to South sound or the other side. They should all have to feed into the roundabout and around because it’s just making traffic worse
Agree 100%. Traffic should only be able to turn left at the Eastern entrance/exit to Grand Harbour.
Oh sure! Bring all that eastern district traffic quicker into GT and then let it clog and back-up – as usual. More dual carriageways, bypasses, extensions, phases…whatever we call it are not the real fix!!
A REAL public transportation system… and that will lead to less cars being used!
What a happy coincidence. Below was posted on the East West [so-called] Arterial comments this morning. Refers to the southwest leg in the map attached to this article.
You might be surprised to learn that the Ironwood Forest remains under threat from this road expansion too.
On April 16, 2008 the late Lois Blumenthal wrote to the Compass: “A road will soon be built through the Ironwood [Heritage] Forest behind UCCI. … I urge everyone to add their voice to mine and let government know that you support conserving this national treasure. If the Cabinet and the MLAs don’t hear from the voting public, they will assume that no one cares.”
There followed the then most successful outpouring of public opposition to a proposed environmental and cultural disaster.
But the road plans were only shelved, not abandoned.
And so we now see the NRA issuing notice of declaration of intent to acquire land to resume the march into the heart of the Ironwood Forest. By opening an access road as part of the Bobby Thompson / Lindford Pierson roundabout reconstruction.
Apparently NRA and Cabinet believe it is in the public interest to reset the wrecking ball rolling into the only remaining habitat in George Town that supports the endemic Ghost Orchid and Old George bromeliad, two among many unique species of Caymanian wildlife in that extraordinary site.
Much of the land subject to the Roads Law, Section 3 notice made by Cabinet on November 30, 2021 and published in the Compass on December 17, 2021 and subsequently, will be used for the roundabout and to ensure that the equestrian centre will not be disturbed. The same cannot be said of the future disturbance to the IWF if the sections of parcels 14D104Rem1, 15C24Rem1 and pars of parcels to their northwest become the gateway into the forest and its supporting wetland.
There is no objection process under the Roads Law. There is no invitation to the public for input. The notice is a bald statement of intent. Now is the time to make your voice heard again regarding Boundary Plan 615.
In 2008 detrimental actions had already been taken before the public was made aware of the imminent dangers. It might still be years before the next step is taken, but now is the time to register your opposition. Do not allow them to say – “but you had full notice”.
Way overdue. Thanks
Stop traffic going through crew road (local access only put a barrier in the middle that the police and fire etc can open and depending where you live you have to go around). Put a flyover at hurleys so through traffic does not stop with smaller 1 lane roundabout below. There are thousands of these in the UK and it works and so much safer. (or through road with roundabout above). The whole issue with cayman is the multiple ways to go if you funneled all the traffic one main route you could significantly cut all the bottle necks. it’s crazy the crew road traffic rejoins traffic from LP again then it funnels around the airport all the way to ALT (butterfield) roundabout. If we made 1 main artery road and stopped all shortcuts traffic could flow a lot better.
The actual solution is to remove it the Grand Harbour roundabout entirely and have patrons utilize those at Kings and Red Bay primary should they wish to access. But that would require critical thinking to come up and testicular fortitude (here’s looking at you Saunders) to implement.
Have you seen what traffic is like when only one way is available? Crewe Road is an alternative to the Highway.
It’s not a Highway it’s a road
A flyover in Cayman would become an inadvertent launching ramp. You can’t help these drivers.
Speaking of launching ramps, can someone in Public Works please go dig all the sand clogging Red Bay boat ramp across from Vela on South Sound road?
Perfect timing for closing down GT as well!!
Who’s working from home on Monday I wonder….
If we could educate idiots to use turn signals correctly/at all, that’d reduce a significant amount of traffic caused by ignorance.
If morons would stop coming to a standstill to let other morons out of side roads, we wouldn’t have an issue.
What’s a turn signal? Asking for a friend
Can’t be done. Living here means living with ignorance. Get used to it and just anticipate bad drivers like everyone else.
I live (& grew up) here. I use my indicators for every turning and lane change manouver, including on roundabouts. Hope you do too. Or do you just complain and cast blame?
You don’t use them correctly, particularly on roundabouts.
Thank God……………
Would be interesting to know if these affected land owners have been compensated for Government taking their land?
And how many are politicians? And what they received!
None of the land owners in question here are politicians or even ‘connected’ individuals. The compensation negotiations are still on-going despite PPM claiming just before elections that they reached agreements with the respective land owners.
The land owners – probably. Those of us who will be living next to a construction site for the next 16 months and then a six lane highway a few feet from our homes, not so much. Not to mention the knock on effect on property values….
PPM administration negotiated that deal yrs ago, but they were not ever effective on its execution. They/Hew were waaay to busy building their egotistical policies for themselves and their buddies. PPM was and is still a total waste of time
PPM blatantly lied about coming to an agreement with the land owner before last elections, there was no agreement in place at that time and negotiations are STILL underway with the primary land owner.
Obviously.
Roundabouts.. slow.. traffic. I don’t get the obsession with roundabouts in Cayman. I don’t have a degree in engineering or public policies… but I can look at this with problem solving eyes and tell you this will not do the job. People are still traveling in one direction in the morning and one direction at night. The rights of way will still remain the same and the same issues will arise. I guess you just need to be a non governmental employee to see it.
Its such a lazy approach to handling traffic issues. Instead of looking at proper public transport.. they rather just put more roundabouts in so that my tyres are worn out quicker… or maybe that’s the point.
I give up on this island. Everyone wants to be taken seriously but no-one can come together to even try and make an honest effort on any issue. Caymanians cannot compete in the world but they believe they can, which is the issue. If this island wasn’t controlled by a few egotistical people I wonder what we could have achieved, but instead the only things that get approved are things that wet particular hands.
Cayman will forever be wanna be’s. The only thing saving us is that our island is small because with a larger population ever single issue would be exponentially worse… oh yeah I forgot the plan to push to 100k residents.. I guess it will get worse soon enough.
To clarify, non attention paying idiots slow traffic, roundabouts are fine.
Roundabouts work great when people use signals and dont stop to see if anyone is coming
Roundabouts only work when the traffic flow is equal from all roads.
I think you will find roundabouts have been proven to be significantly more efficient than traffic lights, there lots of study’s proving that. look up traffic flow videos on youtube they clearly show a much better efficiency than lights.
They’re just cheaper. If you want traffic to be slower then they are just the ticket.
I don’t think roundabouts slow traffic at all. If used properly they keep the flow moving. It’s people continually stopping to let people out of turnings that slow traffic down. And people trying to turn right into Goring Avenue when there are clear signs saying no right turn. They cause traffic to back up along S Church Street.
CIG employees working from home during the pandemic was a success? If you believe that stop smoking what you’ve been smoking.
For some this is an addition to their own Formula 1 track. Let the games begin.
The horses will be upset.
horses win
Three things come to mind to even up the contest
Pot-au-feu de cheval
Cheval à la Parisienne
Cheval à la mode
All great.
Miss Mary wins. Held out & kept her stable where it is
Im sure Mary will be getting a nice compensation (again) along with the proceeds of the sale of whatever land they got to buy.
The horses won.
Pretty sure everything will still just jam up at the traffic light. Fingers crossed it works out. We’ll see in two years when they finish the project.
My concern is when am I going to get compensated for my land being taken from me and my family. I am told there are numerous outstanding compensation claims outstanding and the roads authority are dragging their heals on getting these settled. I will be dead before these are settled.
I don’t care
Only serving to move the choke point elsewhere. Until they fix the Grand Harbour clusterfarce, al this is just very expensive lipstick on a pig.
flyover at hurleys is the only solution that will ease congestion there.
Very true. And it’s a problem that will get worse once new condos on both sides of the road, become occupied.
Some kind of East-West flyover bridge would ease the congestion.