Construction work on Carter Rey Boulevard, better known as The Valley main road, is progressing well. The workers began pouring concrete last Wednesday which continued into this week. New detours have been put in place due to expanded digging. The due date for the boulevard’s completion remains mid-March.
In Monday’s government press release the Minister of Tourism, Mr. Haydn Hughes, said: “As you can see, the roundabout is in, and the soil for the plants is also in at the roundabout. We’re moving ahead on both [sidewalks] quickly.”
The section of the road that will be completed first will be from the Parliamentary Road junction to in front of Digicel. This will allow people to access businesses in that section.
The Minister continued by saying: “It’s going to be a beautiful road and there are going to be a lot of new features added that I think that most of us can enjoy.”
Some of those features include red bricks paved into the concrete sidewalks at certain sections. Road Engineer, Shaynis Connor added: “ In front of the red bricks the intention is, in the future, to locate a tree preferably a palm tree so that we have provisions at each of those paved brick sections. Also in front of the sidewalk, along the entire side of the road, you have a foot-wide green area where, in addition to the palms, you also have hedges and short growing plants just to break up the concrete and make it more attractive.”
Mr. Connor continued: “Before there was no drainage, so we’re adding five soakaways. You dig a hole and build a structure for water to enter the hole and depending on the strata of the soil, it will take that water and soak it into the ground.”
Mr. Connor ended: “It is the capital. You want to enhance the capital. You want to make it look attractive for visitors and also to boost businesses in the area. You don’t want to have a capital that is deserted, where business is avoided because it’s unattractive. We want to improve the quality of rides so you don’t have bumps in the road anymore. You want to make it safe because at the junctions there was no control. With the assistance of roundabouts, we assist in calming the traffic, slowing it down, making it safer and we limit the number of conflicting movements.”
The three construction companies working on the road project are Sunrise Construction, B’s Construction, and Superior Industry Equipment Co Ltd. Material and service providers are also crucial to the development of the road.
Cleve Richards of Richards Architecture Limited designed the alignment of the boulevard and supervises its construction to make sure that workers keep to his design.
