THE EDITOR, Sir:
IT IS going to be very interesting to see how the alternate exit requirement of the Portmore residential community to the Mandela Highway will be solved, for even if it is not adopted as the proposed main alternative, the fact is that there have always been very serious traffic jams on this roadway even before it was worsened by the highway construction. Already, it seems as if the design assumed that the principal ingress and egress for this rapidly expanding community would be the toll bridge, for they constructed a bridge overpass at Cow Park which now serves as a bottleneck. And we are also left to assume that there is something missing, for the exit from the present toll road to Portmore and the airport takes us through the bottleneck. In fact, if the toll road is meant to ease the traffic of a burgeoning metropolis that includes Kingston and St. Andrew, Portmore and a very fast-growing St. Catherine, then at least two lanes should have continued from the new highway to the toll bridge without having to cross into local traffic.
20,000 TOURISTS
But the problem is compounded even more when we consider the prospect of the additional 20,000 tourists commuting to Kingston during the World Cup. We must also be mindful that north coast and northern St. Catherine traffic, together with the toll highway traffic, having made it to the Mandela, will not take the toll bridge option since they will have to pass through the bottleneck at Cow Park. And further, if our future industrial developments are to take place west of Kingston, then we must factor in trucks and trailers. When the figures are computed, eight lanes on the Mandela may just be right.
Therefore, together with the urgent call to upgrade the Mandela to take traffic nearer to the heart of the city or Half-Way Tree, the toll bridge to Kingston may serve mostly Portmore traffic with very few, if any, from the west opting for a second toll through Cow Park to the toll bridge. For the present highway to be as effective as intended, we suggest that the interchange between the Mandela Highway, Portmore and the toll bridge be reviewed and that the upgrading of the Mandela Highway to Six Miles be seen as immediate.
Finally, may I suggest that our engineers consider the building of express lanes from Six Miles to Dunrobin Avenue and to upgrade Spanish Town Road so as to separate local from express traffic. Whether or not these proposed lanes are tolled would be a matter for the operators but, as they would take traffic to the heart of the business district, the value to national commerce would be phenomenal.
I am etc.,
STEAD WILLIAMS
sweng@cwjamaica.com
Stony Hill
Kingston 9
Via Go-Jamaica
