The government has approved the Gladstone Road Improvement Project.
Project Officer at the Ministry of Works, Dion Munroe gave an update on the project to date. He said, “we’re about 95% completed in the design phase of the project. In that phase we have now decided to clear the road reservation. So there’s some BPL poles and utilities that has to be cleared on the eastern side of the road reservation. There’s also one or two persons who have encroached on the road reservation and we’re trying to get that sorted out and we’ve identified one or two persons for land acquisition at the major junctions of Carmichael and Fire Trail. There’s also some land acquisition at Rocky Pine Road and the old Gladstone Road junction.”
The $29 million project includes transforming the road into a dual carriageway highway. Munroe said, “we have a hundred foot road reservation. Right now the existing carriageway is mostly to the western side of the carriageway which means most of the construction at the beginning will be on the eastern side of the carriageway that’s why we’re moving BPL poles further east and then we can start construction on the eastern side of the carriageway. We’ll build those two lanes, transfer traffic over and then build the other two lanes.”
According to Munroe in addition to more traffic lanes the project will include improved drainage and flood mitigation, bus lay-bys and a bicycle path.
The project is expected to take two year to be completed.
