Grand Harbour remains NRA’s main challenge
(CNS): The director of the National Roads Authority has said that Grand Harbour presents a significant challenge when it comes to addressing traffic congestion. Edward Howard said it’s a constrained area for traffic and the only way to go east. But at the same time, the area is becoming busier, with new commercial development and condo projects that have created a mixed-use zone. This has left the NRA with the problem of creating safe access for pedestrians while addressing a traffic bottleneck in limited space.
A flyover is one of the solutions that is being considered, Howard said on local media, but that still presents a number of problems, given the shortage of land. It would also reduce the number of lanes on the new road currently under construction because of the support structures that would be needed. And it would involve a massive multi-year construction project, which poses the problem of how traffic which has nowhere else to go would be managed while construction was underway in one of the worst areas of congestion on Grand Cayman.
“We are currently looking at a number of options between King’s Gym and the Chrissie Tomlinson Roundabout,” Howard said when he appeared as a guest on Cayman Marl Road last week. “One of the considerations is having a flyover and pedestrian bridges.”
But he said there were many logistical problems to consider relating to that single-road corridor. “The issue is the availability of land. We are increasing the capacity of that road to six lanes and if we were to do a flyover, we would have to eliminate at least two of those lanes… drilling deep into the ground… with some very heavy construction,” he said. “And while you are doing that, where do you put all the traffic?”
He said that when you look more closely at these proposed solutions, they are often, in reality, very difficult to implement. “It’s not that we haven’t thought of these things,” Howard noted. A team of engineers is looking at potential solutions, especially the idea of pedestrian overpasses. Howard said that within the next few months the NRA is expecting to have some potential solutions for the challenges around Grand Harbour to put to the people.
However, he noted that building roads is not going to solve Cayman’s traffic issues, pointing out that there are many other issues to consider, such as remote working and where schools are located.
Speaking about the controversial East-West Arterial Road extension, he said the NRA was about to sign a contract with the consultants, including mangrove experts, who will undertake the environmental impact assessment. He said the EIA would take more than a year to complete and that the NRA is well aware of the stormwater management issues that will be associated with this road and the potential challenges if the road goes ahead.
During the next year there will be an opportunity for the public to be involved in the EIA process. Once the consultants have drawn up the Terms of Reference, that document will be open to public consultation. In addition to an invitation to submit comments, this will include public meetings.
The road continues to raise concerns across the community because of the threat it poses to the Central Mangrove Wetlands because it will split this critical habitat. As well as the direct disruption to the wetlands by the road itself and the water management problems it will cause, there are concerns that the road will provide access to more development that will further fragment the wetlands and undermine the eco-services and protections that the largely uninterrupted habitat currently provides.
The road and the subsequent development could have a devastating impact on the Central Mangrove Wetlands and the wider environment in exchange for what is being billed as a faster drive to George Town. But activists remain concerned that this extension will not solve the real source of the congestion, which, Howard noted, is mostly a result of the constrained Grand Harbour corridor.
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Category: development, Local News
It’s a complex problem. One solution used where rush hour congestion is a major problem and space for expansion is limited, is more lanes are made available during rush hour to ease the traffic. For instance, during the morning rush, all but one lane would move cars from East to West and during late afternoon’s rush, all but one lane moves from West to East. This is accomplished in some countries by movable barriers and in others by simpler traffic separation methods.
This solution has the advantage of being implementable quickly, relative to other options, for a problem that is already damaging Cayman’s economy and quality of life. It’s also environmentally sound, relative to their options (more roads through the mangroves).
If not deemed a long term solution, it can also be used as a temporary help, while government and the Cayman community figure out a way, should one exist, to solve/mitigate the congestion problem w some of the ideas noted above that take years to plan and implement.
It might also help, if some of those plans, like the flyover, cut down on lanes available during construction, to provide some relief during construction.
Make South Sound Rd 4 lanes with a flyover or enforce the traffic light there. It will make Crewe Rd. & LP Highway much less crowded which is where the majority of people are stuck in traffic.
And while you are at it, make sidewalks and bike lanes mandatory and if the cyclists cross over into the car lanes, ticket them. This share the road crap doesn’t work on narrow roads. Be fair to both cyclists and the 99%+ majority that use cars or busses.
Stupid is as stupid does
The solution is to take this job out of the ppls hands it has been in for the last 10 years. Bring someone in from over seas with fresh ideas stop making staff workn8-4 -work over night like it other countries. Netherlands for example fixes large stretches of road over night. If we keep doing the things like they have always been done we will get the same results
Not allowing expats to use school busses is the issue. 80% of the people on the road in the morning are expats bringing their kids to school
Get rid of all expats is the answer.
Obviously, you are not a business owner. Just another low information dumdum
ANYONE attending a government school can ride the free school busses. WTF are you talking about?
Now getting the private schools to have a school bus service is a totally different thing.
The solution is to look at Grand Harbour junction as extending from Prospect Roundabout, through the Grand Harbour & King’s roundabouts to the ‘Dontown Reach’ Roundabout and including South Sound. You than have three roads into / out of Town: South Sound, Linford Pierson Highway (LPH) & Crew Road. And interconnections between them (to be added at that roundabout on the LPH, in my plan). That way from Prospect you can have traffic navigating 3+ lanes going to Town, depending on which ultimate route they want to get on to. In the evening it is the reverse. You ‘stay in your lane’ on the way through each roundabout, switch lanes on the straights and use the interconnects to get where you are going. (A parallel road from Red Bay to Grand Harbour would help here, so people especially from the east didn’t have to try to use the Grand Harbour roundabout as their offramp to Grand Harbour itself during rush-hour thus backing everyone else up.
A lack, or desire to PLAN, or an appetite to limit uncontrolled population growth (inorganic) is the problem. Simple.
It seems we all have the answers don’t we! As usual here. But i can’t find anyone showing us –
Where are the cars coming from in the morning (is it 25% from before Savannah? 50%) etc
Where are they going? (is it 80% GT central? is it 35% West Bay?)
Before we build or redirect anything, where the flip is everyone coming from and going to. For example, if say 50% of traffic entering Grand Harbour from the East in the AM was heading beyond GT and into Camana, West Bay – then it just may make sense to look to create a North Sound raod-spoke-bridge network from the East West Areterial and rejoining Grand somewhere nroth of the Dump, maybe linking into that roundabout where they;re building a hospital
Just a thought, and the money is here for that, government could issue interest paying bonds to fund a PPP type arrangement no problem and the pension funds could buy in too.
But first things first – where is everyone coming from, and where are y’all going?
Or just public transport including ferry links across the North Sound. You’d cut ‘half’ of the vehicle travel out.
We need the flying cars ,problem solved.
Many people on this Island can barely drive the ones we have now. The hell would I trust them with flying ones…
May as well have flying monkeys to ride on.
Continuing to build more roads and additional lanes is not the answer as our country continues to grow.
A professional public bus service is.
5:28, Just look at Bermuda. A brilliant bus system but we don’t seem capable of learning from others.
It only cost Bermuda $28 Million
What I’m trying to understand, if the NRA Director confirms “ he noted that building roads is not going to solve Cayman’s traffic issues, pointing out that there are many other issues to consider, such as remote working and where schools are located”, then why build more roads at the detriment of the environment? Also, has anyone thought of the flooding that the new east west bypass will create to surrounding neighborhoods?
Two solutions, build a highway using the North Sound connecting eventually all from West Bay to Rum Point with exits and entrances. Made out of cement it will last for over 100 years. The next and obvious one is to build in the Central Mangrove a second town to stop excessive traffic using it. I guarantee our population will grow to over 100,000 people. Just look at the amount of Apartments. What about the next 5 years of students coming out of schools to join the working populace? Can you not see?
The traffic problem is third world drivers. Nothing will fix that problem.
Understand there’s no simply solution but very happy to hear a pedestrian overpass, with a particular emphasis on children’s ability to cross roads safely, is being considered in the near term.
How do we find out if accessibility will be taken into consideration? Asking for friends sakes.
Simple solution. Put in place an efficient, robust, regular and properly licensed bus service. Bin the manic cowboy drivers who have NO road manners or skills and let’s get the island moving. If the Channel Islands like Jersey and Guernsey can do it, and they are much smaller than Cayman, then why can’t we? Answer: Wotes. Pure and simple.
Yes, add Bermuda to the list of small odly shaped islands like Cayman that have an excellent public bus system thats used extensively by locals, expats and tourists.
Also consider a business transport plan for more than xxx employees, or those with fleets of vehicles that are kept on site overnight (like the utility companies).
Car pooling for smaller companies and private schools should be able to afford and organise their own buses, otherwise what are they doing educationg our children?
Since the NRA knows that this area of roads is a major problem, why are all these new developments allowed before the developers pay for adequate infrastructure upgrades as happens in other countries? Why are the high up MP’s giving these same developers duty concessions when they should be paying for the road upgrades? This certainly seems strange folks!
Why would the developers pay for the road infrastructure upgrades when they are aleady contributing to the pool of money to be used for infrastructure upgrades when they pay the infrastructure fees into he government infrastructure fund for developing roads, affordable housing and other infrastructure in the islands?
We are all aware of the zoning in these properties and the potential uses including mixed use residential and commercial properties……plan ahead, avoid these road bottlenecks and make hard choices
Check the Planning Minutes or Agenda Packages, this same NRA, in what looks to be a majority of the time, analyses the impact of these big developments as having a MINIMAL impact on the roads. Recent examples are the 2.12 development on page 67 of this Agenda https://www.planning.ky/wp-content/uploads/meetings/Acpa2122-1.pdf and 2.4 development on page 25 of this Agenda https://www.planning.ky/wp-content/uploads/meetings/Acpa1122.pdf
Yes, developers need to pay for the required infrastructure upgrades as happens in other countries. Look at the traffic access and exit points for the huge development on the seaside across from the Grand Harbour Roundabout. Imagine when that development is completed and fully occupied…
Dead right, 4:34. Their “ minimal impact” comments, repeated ad infinitum, are a sick joke and a perversion of what such reports are supposed to be.
ALT doesn’t make their money off you buying lightbulbs. All development is good, even when the DoE says no.
Not for us peons……….. We side with DoE!
Why can’t safe bike lanes be added to the roads?
I don’t understand the spend for the bike lanes, I hardly see anyone using the ones that exist now.
Keyword = safe
Those are for motorcycles.
That King’s connector needs to be a priority over the EW Arterial. Eases congestion at the Hurley’s roundabout and limits the number of times people clog up the whole thing by coming across 3-lanes to head West.
But this just makes far too much sense so the clowns will just start more mess elsewhere.
1.57pm Maybe Charles III can help?.
Why is Maedac being allowed to hold up the third lane heading east?
I don’t know….. Why IS IT?
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.
Lol
pie in the sky nonsense.
we will never make progress until we first accept that there is no-one in cig or the civil service with the expertise to tackle this issue comprehensively.
This roundabout should win an award for stupid design, it is a death trap for cyclists.
One less thing to worry about mate
5:52 Why don’t you walk across that roundabout so we can all be saved from your stupidity, mate?
Work harder. Buy a car.
Are you available to be booked for kids parties? You know, as a clown.
Yes, 5:52 is a complete clown. Very talented 🤡
build a bridge from savannah area to camana bay.
Best idea I’ve heard for Hurley’s round about is to build a multi story car park at Grand Harbour and buy the green belt and a large portion of the existing parking lot at Grand Harbour. That will provide the needed land for fixing the road and won’t take away parking from GH. It will actually improve the parking situation if a car park allows entrance into Hurley and possibly other shops when it’s raining without going outside. Problem solved for everyone.
Exactly right. I have proposed this idea before. There are supermarkets in Miami that have multistorey car parks. They can be used as hurricane shelters as well.
The car park in front of Hurleys would allow the road to be widened and the flyover could be built here without disrupting traffic.
Hurleys doesn’t have a parking problem. They actually planned their site properly. Don’t make this someone else’s problem.
Hurley’s has a big parking problem, the morons who park there.
I would imagine the property owners would appreciate greatly improving the community they operate in while at the same time improving their customer’s experience and their property. It’s a win win.
Easy. Only only one car per household with a heavy tax. Oh and proper bicycle lanes would be nice.
I know they have this in Bermuda but it would never be implemented here. Would be political suicide
“And it would involve a massive multi-year construction project, which poses the problem of how traffic which has nowhere else to go would be managed while construction was underway in one of the worst areas of congestion on Grand Cayman.”
Do you not think that doing construction while everyone else sleeps and all businesses are closed, and most vehicles are off the road would solve a big part of the problem?
Not really. Construction of this magnitude would require a lot of in situ equipment and materials. In most places constructing this type of overpass a temporary diversion road would be required. Not really possible here.
It would be a few years of horrendous gridlock.
We’ve already suffered more than a few years of that.
Don’t you think it would be better to solve the problem at Grand Harbour before you extend the E W Arterial and create more development in the east
Says someone (12:11) benefitting already from all the road development for the rich people in the west of the island.
A flyover is the only sensible solution! Get on with it!
Everyone that pays any attention knows that the Grand Harbour area is the narrowest part of GCM. So it should come as no surprise that there should have been less development in that area, likely with some duty waivers too? However we have what we have now and in order to keep traffic moving along there will surely require an overpass for vehicular traffic along with a couple of elevated pedestrian crossings. The overpass should be from Linford Pierson Highway to the area of the Chrissy Tomlinson roundabout. The East West Arterial road will need to be elevated also, in the areas where the EIA suggests. Increasing the population is not an all “revenue” (more taxes) proposition – it also requires expenditures!
We don’t “have what we have now” the government can buy that land up, knock down the bank / supermarket / condos / Maedac and get it right second time around. A lot cheaper than any of these other solutions.
We need more and better public transportation with latest technology like real time ETA on bus app. Also more school buses for EVERY schools!
If NRA and government had their shit together then they could’ve done all this over the two years that we were on lockdown and there was minimal cars on the road. Traffic isn’t a new issue so I’m not sure why nothing was being done during the quietest time Cayman will ever get.
Except that Cayman, under the watchful eye of Dr. Lee with Alden holding their joint gospel briefings on the virus, was in a health threat induced paranoia. I am sure (that according to them), the public works & NRA staff would have been deemed a public threat to spreading the virus. *Along with the small children & Scuba divers and snorkelers spitting in their masks.
India was able to build a flyover that VVIP’s drove by in a matter of months so it shouldn’t take years in Grand Harbour
https://theprint.in/india/governance/how-nhai-built-a-delhi-flyover-in-4-5-months-with-a-little-help-from-parrikar/208618/
Meanwhile, NRA has created a “near-miss” situation at the GH roundabout. Ever try exiting Hurley’s from the west and trying to get on the roundabout to go towards GT? Pure hell!
NRA “road engineers” are useless! Look at many other examples of “road design” in Cayman. I mean recent roads and roundabouts! Many are pure stupidity! Exambles are: reverse cambered-corners, pedestrians Xing lights too close to the crossing, so peds press and step out at the same time, etc. Even at 25 mph cars can’t stop on a dime!
Morons in charge from head to toe!
That West access should be left-turn only. People can travel east, then do a 180 at the Red Bay roundabout to head back to town. It would take less than 2 minutes. They have no problem doing that when they are in the US, no reason it shouldn’t be done here, before there’s a horrible accident there.
The best solution is a bridge over water from Old Prospect to South Sound.
spot on 11:38 The environment is a lost cause anyway. At least this would be for a good cause.
no. need to be more west.
Just get on with it. If you build the flyover the throughput will rise easing congestion.
Clearly people struggle with roundabouts here and at rush hour lights at Grand Harbour would likely be faster as lights allow better flow in heavy traffic. However overall roundabouts are cheaper, faster in lighter traffic and unintuitively safer in terms of collision risk.
How about you take and accelerate the two year timeframe. Plan out the logistics, stage materials near the site and get on with it. Oh and do most of the work from 8pm to 6am.
If successive governments had not ignored the Master Ground Transportation Plan we would not be in this mess.The plan prepared at the time of the Cadastral Survey in the early seventies designated reserved road corridors throughout the island specifically to allow for future traffic growth. Unfortunately greedy developers without any intervention from Gov’t were allowed to build on these corridors and we are all suffering as a result.
That plan was a POS
6.48pm Explain your rationale, without it you more than qualify as a POS!.
No sah bring in the US Army Corps they will figure out this mess we have created.
Many year’s ago some of us said that no more developments should be approved in that area for the same reasons that have been outlined in this article. Greed always wins out over common sense so here we are with the problems that exist today. The ministry for sustainable development is simply not as engaged as it should be in trying to quickly address the existing issues that will quickly have a further negative impact on the lives of the residents of the Cayman Islands and the environment.
The development in that area has exactly nothing to do with it. Between all the new developments going in you might have 200 new homes. Thousands and thousands of cars go through this intersection every day.
It doesn’t matter if the development is at grand harbor or two miles east or twenty miles east. EVERYTHING east has to go through this junction.
The development in the area IS the problem. If that land was not developed there would be more space to build more roads without these super expensive alternative solutions like overpass and causeway into South Sound etc. These developments in the Grand Harbour junction shouldve never happened. Shame on govt. The real question is what has been done to prevent this from happening again?
There is only one new development that would preclude adding more road space. That’s Aura from NCB and it’s not finished yet and only 28 units. So buy it by compulsory purchase and do whatever it is you think you could do with that little extra space. Or you could take Scotia’s building and get a bit of space. Hurley’s has been there forever and is not new, indigo bay is far up the road and you can see there’s no problem fitting 3 lanes in there. Couple houses on the road don’t really seem to be an issue. So what new development except the 1 I mentioned is the problem?
And if that 1 development is such a big deal then buy it asap before it’s done and occupied and bulldoze it for your 15-lane roundabout
People were saying this area was a future bottleneck and development around it should have been restricted to allow future road corridors before Grand Harbour (Hurleys) was developed.
The foreseen problem here has been a loooong time coming. But focusing on the last couple of developments and saying ‘they’re small so not a problem’ is how we got here. Death (or traffic jams) by increments.
OMG is it not clear that roundabouts offer no traffic control? Simple fix, make a “normal “ intersection with traffic lights. Not just here, but get rid of all highway roundabouts. This also fixes pedestrian problem as you would have crosswalk control also. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.
Roundabouts are the work of the devil! They have aggravated people for many years, because they are still thought to be “a good thing” by people who are lacking in intelligence.
HAVE to do something…even if it has to be short term pain for LONG term gain, but it REALLY needs to be LONG term, not just a fix for the immediate couple of years.
Cayman has never thought long term unfortunately.
In other words, NOTHING can be done to alleviate traffic from the East because of the development that is Grand Harbor but let’s go ahead and destroy the central mangroves anyways, create 100 new problems just so those travelling from the eastern districts get to the bottle-neck quicker.
#worldclass
Cars will all be self-driving by the time a flyover is funded and finished. In the meantime, right now, why isn’t the NRA building the bike lanes we paid for back in 2015? Where are they? They were required to be a feature of every roadway since that date. There are thousands of lone commuters that only drive because it is STILL too unsafe to ride a bicycle, ebike, or scooter. Provide a safe 3 foot lane/path for them. Pick one lane and designate it the high occupancy lane during rush hours (2 or more passengers). If we ticketed drivers on the full Traffic Law, there would be a lot more people riding bikes.
If you want a frank answer to your question:
The reason people don’t ride bikes isn’t really because it’s dangerous. It’s because it’s too hot and rainy and people are lazy.
The reason there are no bike lanes is that they are a pain in the ass, we don’t have enough room for them, and few people would use them.
Motorcycles use them every day.
How about having housing in central George Town? Something government has actively prohibited! Civil servants are responsible for this shitshow. Perhaps if they went to Camana Bay they could learn the importance and viability of a mixed use town center, and the greatly reduced traffic demands thereby produced.
Camana bay is a wasteland. ain’t nobody living there.
60 existing homes at The Terraces. Another 89 at Kapok. Another 200 at Olea.
Those pedestrian bridges need to be on the water front and Elgin avenue as well.. these people are clueless when it comes to traffic regulation.
It Takes 1 hour just to get to town from savannah in the morning, cayman’s road infrastructure is not looking good for the future and is highly frustrating. 3 to 4 lanes leading into 1 lane. please make it make sense.
When is the Selkirk Drive connector into Grand Harbour going to be done. It is only about 100 ft of road. This could be done within a month. Why has it been sitting for years now ?
Ask the Grand Harbour cartel.
This connector is the silliest thing ever. Think about it for a second. What does it accomplish?
It allows everyone who lives down the Selkirk area to cut through by Hurley’s and come out at Kings. When they do so they’ll be coming out on the right side of the roundabout compared to all the rest of the traffic. That gives them the right of way and the majority of the traffic flow has to stop for them. Great for that neighborhood; terrible for everyone else.
The only reason it was even conceived was so Alden could get elected by doing this favor for his neighbors. It serves no logical purpose whatsoever.
Do the flyover, quit whining about the structural requirements.
Google: “Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel” as another option from the east to the west.
It also puts the 1000s of drivers from Prospect bombing down a road between a parking lot and a supermarket, putting everyone who goes to Hurleys at risk.
Not King’s. It was to get to the Grand Harbour roundabout. By shifting the parking way from the road and creating the second road paralleling the highway it alleviates some of the traffic. In the morning they get funnelled into the inside lane, not affecting the others coming from the east then in the evenings they split off form the outside lane leaving the inside lane to continue east without interruption. The problem is that the traffic on the main road has outstripped the ability of the roundabout to handle it. So it doesn’t matter if they join at Grand Harbour or have to go up to Prospect and circle that roundabout to come back on the inside lane. Both result in more traffic than the bottleneck can accommodate.