Hanover’s first traffic lights near activation

WESTERN BUREAU:

Questions are being raised as to why Lucea, the Hanover capital which is frequently choked with traffic congestion, was not selected to site the first traffic lights to be installed in the western parish.

Infrastructure for the signals have instead been installed at the entrance to the OceanPointe housing scheme along the accident-prone Point main road and metres from the Grand Palladium hotel.

OceanPointe is one of the largest housing developments under way in Hanover, with 400 units constructed in Phase One and plans for an additional 1,300. The first set of houses are now partially occupied.

Andria Dehaney-Grant, councillor for the Sandy Bay Division in which the traffic lights are being installed, said that while she is happy for the signals, she, too, questions why Lucea was shunned.

“Considering the fact that that general thoroughfare has been one that has been having a lot of traffic accidents within the parish, I think that the placing of the traffic lights there is a welcome infrastructure for the Sandy Bay Division, in particular, and the parish of Hanover in general,” she told The Gleaner.

“I am hoping that in the near future ... we (Hanover) will be getting some more, because those are well-needed infrastructure in any parish,” she stated.

National Works Agency (NWA) Communications Manager Stephen Shaw told The Gleaner on Wednesday that the location was selected following discussions between the state agency and the developers of the housing scheme.

“With the development being in that location, and the road being a fast-moving road, the potential for conflict in relation to persons entering and exiting that community was seen as pretty high,” said Shaw, noting that as more persons move into the scheme, the number of road users would increase.

Asked why Lucea was not chosen for stoplight, he said that the seaside town would need much more infrastructure.

“There is no way that you can put up one traffic signal in Lucea and that alters the challenges in that space,” Shaw said, noting that the town has outgrown the space.

Until funds have been identified to construct a bypass road, its traffic congestion problems will continue, he reasoned.

But public passenger vehicle operators in the town said they would have preferred if the traffic signal was placed at one of the intersections in Lucea. They recommended the areas called ‘Keep Left’ – at the eastern entrance to the town – and the intersection of Main Street and Willie Delisser Boulevard for attention.

“A traffic light or two, along with the police, could help in reducing the traffic congestion within the town every day,” one suggested.

Late last year, Lucea Mayor Sheridan Samuels had called for rumble strips to be placed along the Point main road to reduce the frequency of deadly accidents.

bryan.miller@gleanerjm.com