BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE long-awaited rollout of the second set of traffic lights on St. Kitts has been delayed, as concerns were raised by businesses and residents over the way construction work is being undertaken.
Officials at the Public Works Department had scheduled the end of March this year to turn on the new signal lights. That, however, was met with several challenges due to ongoing road works and the COVID-19 pandemic.
While providing an update on the new lights, Engineer at the Public Works Department, George Gilbert acknowledged that they had hit a snag, noting that they have received feedback and complaints.
He explained that the feedback from property owners is for alternatives to what is currently being implemented.
To this end, work has paused and the Department is seeking to have consultations with those affected to determine the best solutions.
“..As such, we are actually reviewing it before we go forward with it. So, that is what is causing some of the delays...but as soon as we get those regularised we would be able to move swiftly into it,” added Gilbert.
The engineer pointed out that a request was made for additional work, which was not factored in during the planning phase; that recommendation has now forced the Public Works Department to return and conduct a traffic count to determine its impact on traffic flow.
“In so doing, we had the final discussion just before the lockdown, but during the lockdown we couldn’t do the count because if we had done the count during the lockdown it would have been skewed,” noted Gilbert.
The Government had implemented the traffic light project back in 2018 as part of its drive to control and better manage the flow of traffic in downtown Basseterre.
