- Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
Leslie Pickard, left, consultant of DIWI, the firm contracted to rehabilitate the Spanish Town bypass, explains the map to Transport and Works Minister, Robert Pickersgill, second left, Vando Palmer, communications director of the National Works Agency and Damion Reid, assistant in the Ministry of Transport and Works. They were on a tour of the Jose Marti roundabout in Twickenham Park, St. Catherine, yesterday.
Damion Mitchell, Staff Reporter
THE MINISTRY of Transport and Works expects to spend about $400 million to transform the Twickenham Park and the Old Harbour/Spanish Town roundabouts into intersections and to rehabilitate the connecting roads.
Minister Robert Pickersgill, who expressed satisfaction with the flow of traffic through the new Spanish Town one-way system, yesterday said the Ministry would now accelerate the transformation of the roundabout by Twickenham Park into an intersection.
He told journalists during a tour of the site that the Twickenham Park phase of the project should be completed within the next three months while work on the other roundabout should end next June.
Preparatory work on one of the soft shoulders along the Spanish Town bypass has started and the resurfacing exercises are slated to begin this week.
Addressing concerns related to the new one-way system, Minister Pickersgill said that several proposals were being examined to encourage the safety of students of the Jose Marti High School who travel from Spanish Town.
CROSS TWICE
At present students have to cross the road in two stages before they can gain access to the institution. Mr. Pickersgill said among the options being considered, were the construction of an overhead crossing and the erection of a bus stop close to the gate of the school where students could disembark the buses. However, vehicles would have to complete the roundabout in order to access the bus stop.
He said the Ministry would be in dialogue with the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) to examine the proposal for buses to begin completing the roundabout for the safe disembarkation of students.
He also said the Ministry would be accelerating the process for the erection of signs along Burke Road in Spanish Town, which is part of the route for the new one-way system.
