BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Feb. 12.2018 – THE landscape of downtown Basseterre will change today, when the government officially flips the switches to commission the traffic/signal lights.
At a simple ceremony slated for 5:00 p.m. today, the Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris and Minister of Public Infrastructure, Ian Liburd will turn the lights on at the junction of Wellington Road and Cayon Street.
In a bid to scientifically control the growing traffic numbers in Basseterre, the Government has instituted the lights in a phased approach.
The first phase has seen the government installing lights at three strategic locations: the junctions of Fort and Cayon Streets; Fort Street and the Bay Road; and the junction of Wellington Road, Pond Road and Cayon Streets.
Minister Liburd told SKNVibes during a recent tour through Basseterre that it was primarily due to the increasing numbers of vehilces
“We recognized that as an administration, as a government that, there is an ever increasing population of vehicles on the road and that has derived congestion in certain areas. So what we did, we engaged a consultant over a three-month period to do a traffic count, which informed us of the areas where, so to speak, we can improve efficiency.”
Traffic inspector, Carl Caines had indicated that the Federation had on record over 21,000 operational vehicles on the streets.
Minister Liburd disclosed that there are more traffic lights to come on stream.
He revealed to SKNVibes that in Basseterre, they are eyeing the upper portions of Wellington Road beyond the Seventh Day Church, the Bay Road at the RAMS Cash and Carry intersection, Victoria Road and another in Basseterre.
Those are considerations that will form part of the second phase, for which the Minister did not disclose a start date.
When the lights are turned on drivers will see a number of new changes being instituted, including no right turning along several streets and major thoroughfares.
SKNVibes has the updated version of the changes that Traffic Department has implemented.
The changes can also be heard through our video production, ‘SHIFTING GEARS: En Route to the New Basseterre’.
