Stretch of airport connector to open after long delay
(CNS): The National Roads Authority has announced that Phase 1 of the Airport Connector Road (ACR) will open on Friday. This first stretch of the road only extends from the Esterley Tibbetts Highway at the roundabout by the dump to the Water Authority Sewage Treatment Plant. The road was built by Dart after it won the original contract in February 2020, and it has never been entirely clear why it has taken almost four years to build this short stretch.
Officials have blamed the process of finding contractors to deal with the culverts, but in July 2022, the ministry claimed that the issues with the culverts had been resolved and the project was back on track.
The road, which crosses a patch of wetland, has proved very costly. In addition to the culvert installation and the $800,000 contract awarded to Dart to build it, the government has spent millions of dollars on fill. In June last year, officials announced that the first section of the road would be finished in September, nine months later than the revised completion date estimate.
When the entire four-lane road is complete, it will link the Owen Roberts International Airport and the Esterley Tibbetts Highway. Although the goal is to reduce George Town traffic, this first phase will be of limited assistance with that, though there are internal roads providing access to North Sound Road and the Sparky Drive intersection.
Officially named the Jay Bodden Highway, a ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 10:30am before the road opens to traffic at noon on Friday. The NRA urged drivers who use the new road to do so with caution and observe signage as they become familiar with the new route.
See the planned road below:
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Category: Local News
It’s amazing what you can get done when your family owns 160 acres and you’re a politician.
let’s see whether the rest of the road gets built now Heather has access to her land. No need for the rest of it as it doesn’t benefit her any more.
Sad times ahead for Cayman and it’s environment in 2024?
Give it a break ffs.
Enough with this environment bs..it’s just a road to ease traffic, and will help thousands every week.
Does EVERYTHING that benefits the public at large, have to invite this ridiculous tree hugger attack every time..?
NOT IF WE VOTE CHANGE …
and for change we must vote .
But it is a election year
Don’t get confused by the late run smoke and mirrors
Don’t forget wat was done and wa iz no
Betrayal of your political partner for a 10 million dollar road named in honor of your Father have you no Shame or respect??? You Go Girl!!!
They keep referring to him as a developer… please show me which development he ever successfully did?!!! I SEE NONE
A Marl pit
Seriously! 2:22 pm I was thinking the same thing, what the heck did he do to gain the title of developer? Putting him on a delusional pedestal with a made up idea of who he was does not make him honorable.
Jay Bodden father of MP Heather Bodden the Nepotism never ends in Cayman.Poor Wayne Double cross continues unabated.
More roads, more buildings and more cars but not enough parking. How is this ok???
The picture in the Compass of them all pointing upwards like hidjuts is very sad. Couldn’t they honour Mr Jay better than that?
Less Crime
Eventhough it took 4 years to build
It will now provide better lighting in isolated undeveloped hiding areas illegal migrants come onto our shores with with illegal substances and illegal arms
Hopefully our law enforcement agencies will be provided with easier and better access to crack down on what really happens after dark in these isolated, undeveloped and uninhabitted areas
Another partly finished road by the incompetent staff a NRA.
This is one of many projects seriously in arrears, two others are the Eastern Avenue road to North Church Street and the development project near the Lobster Pot.
The brains behind the later are owned by Kenny Bryan who wasted $6m of our money over two years ago. These brians without planning permission destroyed the income producing cottages and then fenced off the property denying the public access. Why do that I ask. Why can the public not use that property Mr Brains. No application for planning permission has been filed. Why is that.
Please tell all what on earth you are doing. This appears to be yet another example of the waste of public funds.
And no business case!
Like many government projects no government case such as all the people arriving by sea in the north sound to catch a plane. These guys are nuts.
There are 1400 accountants on the island . How about talking to a couple.
oh i am sure there is one….but nobody is allowed to look at it.
Ribbon cutting ceremony?? Really?? Smh
Sellout! just to get they name up on a road our environment will bare the consequences.
It’s named after Heather Boddens father so I guess they had to extract the max PR points from it! Smh shameful what this shambles of a Government will do for “community points”.
What PR points? She is Caymnaian, as is her family dumbass.
PR can also mean Public Relations.
Dumbass? You need to look in the mirror 2:24 pm. In this instance it’s pretty obvious, for anyone with a lick of sense, that PR points would relate to Public Relations and not Permanent Residency.
Will the right turn from CIS still be allowed? If not this will be a nightmare if all that traffic gets dumped back into Camana Bay to be able to access the bypass.
You can always turn left, go to the roundabout, go right around (using your indicator) and drive to the ETH. It’s only about half a mile, so don’t be lazy.
So this road is long overdue possibly behind schedule, a costly road that goes through wetlands and named after one of the original landowners, just one phase of a larger plan. Is there nothing beneficial about the road?
Yes. It’ll make the dump a higher priority, since people will get a whole new angle to enjoy.
Gives YaYa (Savannah MP) access to her family property
Precisely… access to their family property to do another failed development. They should be ashamed.
4 years!!!…..laughable. civil service incompetence is never-ending
time for more awards franzie!!!
time for more pay-rises ju-ju!
Dart, a private third party, was paid $800k as project manager for this NRA construction project. We might ask what value they add.
3.35 Dart built it, not civil servants.
just another cig tall-tale of a mystery wrapped up in a riddle.
but who cares…we have a government that refuses to hold press conferences…..because they know their incompetence will be shown to the public.
welcome to wonderland.
btw what was the final account figure on the airport expansion?
That particular path weaving through industrial park is pretty nasty. First impressions from visitors will be interesting.
If this road is to “eventually” connect to the airport, then why has the outer (leftmost) south bound lane on the ETH not been made into a dedicated left turn lane for the volume of traffic that will “eventually” use it? Instead we have 3 south bound lanes merging to 2 and then lots of vehicles taking the first exit. That makes no sense to me.
I would guess that an insightful overview as you are proposing would have been done long ago, and not just as an add-on as this seems to be.
PLANNING. In theory, a forward-looking overview which should ideally encompass future growth and expansion (and funding!)
I believe that the primary problem — from the beginning — is that each elected government has a different “plan” and view and thus long-term generational benefits are never realised. Like the dump. Like our nonsensical roadways and connections. Like our knee-jerk response to overgrowth; instead of fixing the problem, we build more low income housing. Instead of restricting immigration, we make it more expensive for expats to buy a cheap car. Instead of promoting Caymanian untrained employment, we cast them aside and import more cheap labour expats.
All part of the same sickness. No single government caused it, and no single government seems to have done much to fix it. All governments seem to embrace the ‘trickle-down’ theory as their response to assuaging the woes of the middle-to-low class people. We have no long view, because we have no sense of a contiguous, ongoing, cooperative government. JMVHO.
Our “primary” primary problem is two-fold:
1- Our politicians aren’t entering Government to solve issues and,
2- Even if they were, they don’t have the knowledge, experience and skills necessary to implement policies to address such issues.
4 years and millions of dollars to build less than half a mile. I wonder how much time and money the proposed East-West extension will take? Can’t imagine it’s the most cost effective or fastest way to impact the traffic problem.
Cut that ribbon quick before the next fire on Mt Trashmore closes the road!
Who decided to name it after Jay? Was it perhaps …. Jay? Could have named it after a Caymanian national hero, but instead chose a minister with limited history of public service. Part of his 30 pieces of silver for throwing Wayne under the bus, no doubt.
CNS: The minister’s name is Johany “Jay” Ebanks. The name of the road is Jay Bodden Highway.
Jay Bodden Highway. You have got to be fing kidding.
Who is/was Jay Bodden?
Jay Bodden was another amazing national hero.
So many in the Cayman Islands.
He was a really nice man who with his brother Hubert contributed mightily to local projects using his and Hubert’s resources. No need to bring in the silly stuff about so many national heroes blah blah, it just debases the contributions of people like Jay.
Fact he was Heathers dad and the road accesses her family’s land has zero to do with it of course.
Heathers dad lmao
Guess your not caymanian if you have to ask.
That’s not a crime, 4:29. Ease up, bobo.
Heather daddy.
A pioneer to the island…He donated that land to the Cayman Islands
Rubbish he sold to Dart! That’s why they wanted to build it. Make sure it was done properly.
LOL a pioneer?! Heather et al, is that you???? He was no pioneer or any body to talk about in these islands. Stop it with the lies.
So which Caymanian is worthy of your praise then ?
Not him. That’s for damn sure
I guess we cant call it the airport connector road, since it doesn’t actually connect to the airport. Perhaps we should call it the Jay Bodden Sewage Farm connector road?
Why does government keep telling us how much things cost – and then treat critical aspects as separate? We are building a road for 800k – but culverts and fill are millions extra?!!!
FFS!!!!
This is who you elected!
Cannot wait to see another roundabout to be full of drivers not indicating. It makes my soul ache to see so much stupidity on such a small island.
They’re bad but far better than the people in the left lane who indicate right when they’re going straight and freak out everyone else who think they might try to actually go right.
I prefer to indicate right until I approach my exit. That way you (& everyone else) knows what I am doing. If “straight” is say the 3rd exit from your entry how do the other drivers know? For example, continuing north on the ETH at the Yacht Club roundabout. Plus it clearly shows drivers waiting to enter if you are continuing pass them or exiting and they can proceed.
Straight isn’t the third exit, it’s the second exit. “Right” is the third exit or all the way around.
What you are doing has the opposite effect of what you think it does. If I’m in the inside lane and you’re signaling right in the outside lane I have to prepare for the possibility that you’re going to cut across and head to the third exit and potentially cause a collision.
Just stop it.
Do it in the motherland and everyone will assume you have an intellectual impairment. Even stupid drivers in the UK don’t do it!
You’re going straight? indicate as you exit. No more, no less.
The lazy assed ‘exit only’ morons irritate me, too. Yeah, I’m going right, but why bother indicating???
If you are in the left lane indicating right, the other drivers think you are trying to change lanes in the rounabout. Other drivers think you are turning right and wait for you (or at least they should) and it isn’t clear to any pedestrians what you are doing. Just don’t do it.
Remember folks, Don’t indicate right when going straight! Only left when coming off.
..
but do indicate when going right, and then indicate to signal the exit. Even a moron on a phone can do this, if they tried.
The utter laziness and ineptitude of drivers here is through the roof. Idiots will sit in traffic, blissfully unaware that they’re part of the problem.
I love the new linford Pearson roundabout, you can turn right from all 3 lanes. That right turn from the left lane really makes people think they can do that anywhere. in the UK you would get points on your liscence and a big fine for that! If you are not done for dangerous driving.
I get first dibs on being the first to have a single vehicle crash!
I already have a Honda, so please, nobody crash until Saturday, to give me ample time to inexplicably end up in a ditch.
Thanks in advance.
Agreed. But only if it’s a Honda Fit. 😂
It is a Fit! Just need to put rental plates on it and have my foglights blazing for the full-house!
Remember, please, wait for my signal before commencing your own crashes!
Fits generally can’t go fast enough to really hurt yourself. The Accord is the clear winner if you’re going to go all in and go for the inexplicably incompetent road death.
😂
The compromise to get rid of Panton if I ever saw one. The subterfuge continues eh JayMac !
seems like wayne didn’t want a lot of things to happen!!!
JayMac didn’t have anything to do with these one friend. This was all Heather Bodden and her family who like to paint her father as some saint. Laughable really
Our first Toll road which hopefully with require a Dart Pass to keep the road menaces on Esterly Tibbetts highway see Cayman Plan Cayman already working!
The rest won’t come soon so how about a gocart or dirt bike track for now and we can get some benefit!
A road going nowhere. Let’s turn it into a go cart track!
Then dont use it whiner. For those going south on Esterly Tibbets who just need to go to the industrial park area, or going to the airport in heavy traffic, can now avoid the highly congested Butterfield roundabout.
really? how do you plan to do that.
Multiple responses from above??? Anything substantive to add?? I thought not.
It’s pretty rough and doesn’t get you to the airport. Still no work being done on the Airport end of the road. No rush guys, this is only part of the NRA deal from 2016.
WOW 4+ years to build half a mile!
It does get you to the airport, just for now you have to weave a bit through industrial park. Alternatively, you can continue to go all the way to the Butterfield roundabout, turn left, and weave your way through industrial park.
Get it done FFS!!!!!
The Road to Nowhere right now
They’re calling it the Jay Bodden Highway?! – What a complete joke!
Why not Ken Dart Highway?
Why not the big money pit?
Because it’s not done yet, with small boutique stores littered along its length.
Of all the issues that can be examined surrounding the airport connector project, you jump straight to something as trivial as the name of the road.
Care to enlighten the masses why the road name is a “complete joke’?
Don’t know- are people getting mixed up with MP Jay Ebanks and a Jay Bodden?
Maybe say “Ken Dart Highway and the Jay Bodden Ditch”.
Interesting how the mangroves that were mowed down (or to be mowed down) is of no concern to anyone. I thought the environmentalists would have been up in arms about that!!! Apparently, not all mangroves are worth saving. Hmmm
Of course lots was said by the people concerned about the health of the area. You are just being a demagogue.
It’s literally around a dump. Even environmentalist mangrove worshippers realise that we need some roads.
Mown down!? You mean the mangroves which were poisoned years ago by the toxic run off from the dump? The run off which poured into and along the dyke out to the North Sound for decades? Yeah, those mangroves were a great loss.
finally you understand. NOT ALL MANGROVES CAN BE SAVED