Dart agrees to widen road
(CNS): Cabinet members confirmed Thursday that Dart Realty has agreed to widen the Esterley Tibbetts Highway through to the Butterfield roundabout in George Town as part of the existing NRA agreement. However, the government members were still tight lipped about when Cayman will see the full details of the deal it has struck with the islands’ largest developer and the independent value for money assessment conducted by local consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers. Following the road closure and the work that has started on the West Bay road itself, the ministers said the short term delays to traffic would soon be outweighed by the long term gain.
Heath Minister Mark Scotland revealed that negotiations have continued with Dart and the final details of the third amendment to the NRA deal were being fine tuned this week after Dart agreed to make the entire ETH a dual carriageway. It has been confirmed that Dart will widen the stretch between the Camana Bay roundabout and the Butterfield roundabout in George Town first and will then also widen the road through Camana Bay to a dual carriageway to prevent any bottlenecks.
Tourism Minister Cline Glidden apologised for both the inconvenience of the road-works and the late notice about exactly where and how traffic was diverted but he said that there was still full access on the parts of the West Bay Road that have not yet been formally closed and people would still be able to camp in the area over Easter.
Glidden said there was nothing strange about the information and notices regarding the road works and diversions coming from Dart rather than the NRA because Dart was doing the work. He said government had contacted the developer this week to see that the tie-ins and access points to the ETH would all be completed quickly to cut down on traffic delays.
Despite the legal challenges and the continued opposition in the wider community, the government ministers made it clear that they are all still fully committed to the project. They said all of the delays and diversions relating to the road works were merely a short term issue and once the work was completed the closure of the West Bay Road and opening of the new bypass would be a positive benefit for everyone and the local economy.
There are currently two legal actions that have been filed with the Grand Court by residents of West Bay against the deal and the closure of the road, which has already been gazetted. The first was by four women from West Bay who have filed a lawsuit to which government is expected to defend shortly, and the second was an application for judicial review. Both claims make similar arguments that the closure is unlawful, not least because the road has been a byway for more than 100 years and because the government has approached the closure incorrectly.
Category: Politics
Why don't the churches use some of that manna from Mac to widen the road deep into West Bay in accordance with the scriptures? For is it not written "The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide" ? i.e. two lanes each way and no roundabouts.
You funny baldric (homer)
Think the road to Hell is one way!
Matthew 7:13 I believe you kind of missquoted.
Why is the PWC report so secretive? Why is dart and the government in a rush to get the road finalized before the election? I smell a rat!
There is going to be a Westbay boom when the Botabano portion opens up.. This road is the best thing to ever happen to that district.
care to explain why there will be a boom.
Good Luck with the Bottle Neck on the road leading to Morgan's Harbor. When that happens the Dart radicals will still come up with some excuse as to why there does not need to be two roads into and out of West Bay.
You miss the point. This is not about opposition to the new road. This road was always planned to go into West Bay, as a SECOND road into West Bay.
Still not enough for what he got. We need 4 lanes in front of Camana Bay too. The traffic currently bottlenecks by the Ritz bridge in the mornings and in the evenings, the traffic comes to a halt by the CIS round about. Plus we will need enforcements on the road that everyone do the speed limit of 40mph, as the slow drivers are also causing a big problem and may cause accidents. The police needs to start charging them for obstruction of traffic flow.
Learn not just to read but also to comprehend.
Wow, nice job on the superior attitude. I really do feel inferior now.
To the above troll button users: pleas learn what a troll is. You’re diluting the word. If you must, give me a thumbs down but you’re rendering the term troll meaningless.
Jackie Doak stated at the Govt/Dart presentation meeting in West Bay that there would be four lanes in front of Camana Bay as soon as there were four lanes each side of it.
Don't run too quick on this one. You can't believe what you hear or what they might agree on at this stage. There has been so many changes to this deal/steal you have to wait and see if it completed first.
But so what? There's a roundabout at both ends, & Camana Bay is a single lane bottle neck, so I don't see what the benefit is; are two lanes of queuing traffic better than one? Unless they include filter lanes for turning left, it's no real benefit.
Whilst the outcome is good, this is all just electioneering,
The last charge by the "UDP Light Brigade"
Dart is trying so hard to please everyone. Why can't we be a little grateful instead of always ready to say something negative. Thanks Dart for all your contributions to our Beautiful Island. Some of us do really appreciate it.
we lub you like one of ourown! hell you are one of are own! jolly good fella. a saint. too good to be true
I'm thankful for the new road. I'm not happy about the way that it was done. There was, and still is little transparency. Everything that is associated with the UDP and it's former incumbents seem to be done under the table.
I have no issue with Dart investing in our islands. I have an issue with him being the main stakeholder in Cayman. He has bought out EVERYTHING under the sun. He doesn't have his own bank, neither his own gas station, nor water source. Those may be next. Hope not.
Notice. He doesn't support our local vendors. He has his own of everything! Down to the very plants he grows himself.
Wake up my people.
Agreed, but of course he has his own bank; it is called the National People of Cayman Bank – Locals, Expats and Tourists Branch. Unbeknownst to the many of the depositors they ignorantly funnel money into his control through his many entities. If you are talking about a real physical Bank there is the Dart Bank in Michigan, USA.
http://www.dartbank.com/
Anyone who does their research will find much about this person people in their right mind would not like.
Most people in their right mind will also push for checks and balances to keep any monopolistic, vulture type entity or entities in their place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dart_Container
Of course like all these types who take more than they give they try to pretty it up by giving away a miniscule fraction of what the take to make themselves look good.
A few searches on the internet tell much more.
Just curious, if we were already getting value for money on this deal. Why would dart decide to throw in another few million, imagine how terrible the orginal deal was if so many revisions were made tothe report and it still not released. I wonder how we all would feel right now if the people did not protest and the orginal deal had gone through. I for one am very glad that so many caymanians and residents decided to stand up and make their voices be heard, it ended up pushing the governmrnt to get more out of this deal, i still think it was a steal for DART.
How many local nurseries spent millions of dollars on saving nearly extinct indigenous flora that is native to Cayman?
Dart NEVER! Does something out of the goodness of his heart. Do you think he got where he is by giving things away!? Do you think at all?!
So you're using the fact that Dart is providing more public roading as evidence that the public is being ripped off? That's some interesting logic.
dart should not do anything till they move the dump!
Yes indeed.ove it about 1/2 mile to the left
Love the bike lanes!
I love me!
As I said in a previous blog the bike trails are a great idea. However cyclists beware. Because of the noise and hardship generated by the yellow strips as cars approach roundabouts certain assenine retentives have taken to driving in the cycling lanes to avoid this discomfort.
As to the motor cyclist that drives south everyday at in excess of 70 miles per hour I suggest you slow down, now I have your number. Failing that you may read about it in the Compass before your summons is delivered.
DART is to Cayman what China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) is to Jamaica. A savior for large engineering works that the government cannot readily pay for but can get nice long soft loans, from the same developer, to carry them out. There are consequences however, like some serious concessions in duties, land distribution and right of work. Jamaican saying "if you want good your nose have to run" also “can’t have you cake and eat it”
I don't necessarily agree with your analogy, but even if it were true, I'd take Dart over China Harbour every day of the week and twice on Sundays!
You already have. You’ve taken him right where he wanted you to. And you’ll take him again when he tells you to.
Great news
The notion that there is "continued opposition in the wider community" for this project is absolutely fabricated. And enough with these meaningless "legal challenges". I could file a writ stating that i don't like cruise ships coming into the harbour where i've been fishing for 100 years but that's not going to be a basis to stop the cruise ships. Any time there is change there will always besome who complain.
How about a new angle to this story and highlight the reduction in accidents and reduced bottleneck this road expansion will bring? Oh yeah and its being built for free!
It's not being built for free, you idiot. I am constantly flabbergasted by the people on here who think that Dart is Santa Claus.
Amazing how so many have complete utter disregard for the rule of Law and on top of that believe everything is "Free". There is always a cost. When will they ever learn?
CNS hasit right. There are those who are members of the wider community who may be too busy at 9:44 in the AM or other times during the busy day to post their discontent here.
Never you mind your sleepy little head. No respect or concern over the rights of others much less the impact having one carriageway into and out and out of the head of a Peninsula? There could have been two rights of access absent of Greed, Incompetence and Ignorance. We while wake you up when the next MAJOR storm takes the bridge out. O.K. go back to sleep now.
Exactly what happen in Bermuda in 2005. Here in 2013 and they still have not rebuilt one of their many bridges.
Actually I believe Bermuda was 2003. I understand Hurricane Katrina took out the bridges in the state of Florida in 2005. Same result. The power of mother nature always wins.
Sorry but the road is not being built for free. Yes, it is a nice road, and yes, the bike lanes are great. Pretty much no one disputes that. However, we are paying for it eventually in the reduction in government income over THREE decades due to the concessions.
For free??? Nothing is this deal/steal is for free! It will be paid for sooner or later.
If I was the judge the cruise ships would go.
Widen road what he needs to do is Finish this Grand Road that he has open. My question why was this road open and it was not completed. So the people of this district need to get up with the roosters to make in town on time . I dont have a problem with change but when you are doing these to be vendictive and innocent people have to suffer for it then its a Problem i honestly hope the people of West Bay wake up and make a change.
A tempory road surface is used to divert traffic so that DART/NRA could complete the Tie-in of the new road to the West Bay Road. The new road tie-in couldn't be completed without interrupting traffic for a couple days – this done all over the world.
I hope the proposed resort is going to be like Atlantis in the Bahamas.
While we are at it with all these road talks, DART could find a way of lowering gas prices so that we could all enjoy drive on the new extension of ETHW?
He's not going to start that ine till he done finished with this one. Same people doing the work.
Vindictive???????? Are you serious!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????
Perhaps you can educate us all on how YOU would have dug up the connecting sections to the West Bay Rd and the ETHN sections and then asphalted them all whilst people are trying to drive on them from Yacht Club, Raleigh Quay etc????
Because no matter how you look at it there is no way you can do without causing lane closures and narrowing whilst medians are built.
But of course you want to bad mouth Dart for something.
Perhaps you can bad mouth him for the price of gas or your CUC bill or the costs of your shiny new rims on your lowered boombastic japanese not safe to drive on the roads import.
Keke should have left you’ll a one lane dirt road between wb & gt for being so naive & being a push over for years!
Caymanian
Fellow Caymanian..you cannot put together you and all to make "you'll"…PLEASE never ever in your life do that again!!!
Thanks
Should'nt this have been done before closing the road?
Yes – if we had asked for it when we should have. That's what happens when you have a compromised leader. You don't get what you could.
At some point it would be nice to see some kind of regular traffic police presence – esp along these new highways. They have long become favored racetrack circuits with highspeed duels every 45 minutes or so, blipping downshifts, and squeeling tires at the roundabouts. None of this should be tolerated around the many holidaying tourist plates in our prime tourist area, but who's going to stop it? I was almost killed this morning by a red pickup truck that decided not to yeild or slowdown at all for the right of way roundabout traffic (forget signaling!). Again, squeeling tires and lots of horns, but I ask, who's going to step in and secure the public from these road-rage-fueled, self-entitled maniacs?
There shouldn't be any roundabouts. They cause accidents, hurt fuel efficiency, erode tires, require you to flex your midsection to stay in place, and diminish the pleasure of having a nice long drive. Or as my late, charmingly cantankerous aunt used to say, "straight! It's a road – should be straight!"
You mean you can get 6 pack abs just driving on them? That alone is good reason to have them!
But seriously roundabouts are. Very good idea for all sorts of reasons. If the run is simply straight with a dual carriage way how would one ever turn around?
People don’t turn around here. They back up. Fast.
Fully agreed. The new road is great but somehow since it opened the driving has been crazy. I saw two near crashes this morning. Please, police, can we see you out there before there is a bad accident.
I agree some of these drivers have a death wish and could not give a s*** about the on coming traffic. They should catch them and take away their licenes and make them resit a propper test after taking at least 10 lessons.
This is excellent news for all road users. When a government cannot fund major projects alone, there is nothing wrong with public/private partnerships as long as the public get good value for money. Hopefully the PricewaterhouseCoopers report will soon be available so that we can all see what it contains.
"As long as the public get good value for money." That right there is the problem. Losing the prescriptive rights to the beach, in return for a road, is not good value. Remember, as part of this 'road closure' the beach accesses in that area have been closed as well. In return a volleyball court for visiting players is being built on government land, some lesser beach land in Barkers was swapped and you also get some iron shore in South Sound. What we no longer have legal access to is a good stretch of seven mile beach. (Its where my father took me to catch chubs when I was a kid.) What the developer got is Cayman's first exclusive beachfront hotel on seven mile beach. Plus duty and tax concessions to build and equip and run it. There is a reason the PWC report, which the government keeps claiming is completed, hasn't been released. Because the public is not getting value for money. Our heritage and the ehritage of our children and grandchildren, in the form of the prescriptive rights to access the beach, is worth a lot more than is being paid for it.
The catch here is the, "get good value for money" part. The "PricewaterhouseCoopers report" won't show any money considered payola or graft or anything like that. Was anything paid to anyone in government to get this contract?
dart should have told them to go jump….
sad to see the camana bay road being widened…that was the nicest road on island…it made you feel you were driving in a civilised country…..
What an impertinent post from someone who obviously has no love for this country.
And you had plenty of time to admire the landscaping as you drive through it at 5 mph during rush hour.
Oh? Which civilised country are you from? American roads are ugly and full of ugly cars and people, Canadian roads are destroyed by snow and salt, and the UK's roads are just a grey tale of woe and delay. In all three countries, nothing is spent on landscaping them. The widened ETH stretch through Camana Bay will still need a median – you'll still have the trees you came here for. Our trees…
That's rather rude. Are you suggesting that Cayman Islands is not civilized and if that is the case you are more than welcome to go back from whence you came from. Clearly where you are running from was not civilized enough hence why you are here. Caymanians it is this type of mentality that you have living in your homeland and hope come the election you will vote a conscience and national pride individual(s) as this country needs to start cleaning up the mess and get rid of non-respectful people residing here. Some of the outsiders have no respect for the culture, history, and the indigenous people and have the austerity to make comments like this individual.
haha…the usual caymankind like or leave it approach…..
Like or leave it- expat
Can you get rid of the "non respectful" assholes throwing rocks at policeofficers in east End whilst you are at it.
BTW, check the dictionary for "austerity" and "indigenous" whilst you are about it.
What is sad is that so much money was spent putting in this pretty road past Camana Bay when it should have been obvious that it should have been dual carriageway to begin with.
There was plenty of room to design it that way.
Said the uncivilized boor.
Who says the Camana Bay road is being widened? As I read it, it'll be widened from Butterfield roundabout to Lawrence, then one lane through Camana Bay, then two lanes from Galleria Roundabout on north. Should make for some interesting traffic jams.
Read the article idiot
Thank you, Mr. Dart, for helping us take care of problems we have had for a long time with the traffic situation out of West Bay, something that numerous governments in the past have not been able to do anything about.
Signed- a little girl
The two legal actions that were filed before the Grand Court should be put through the finest shredder in the court's office and then tossed in the nearest garbage bin. These people who have filed these writs have absolutely nothing to do all day long. "Boogsy" – instead of using "Legal Aid" to file a writ in court, how about employing one of the many unemployed Caymanians down in West Bay to clean up some of that bush in the neighbourhood.
How terrible it is that DART is providing infrastructure improvements which the CIG cannot afford. How evil.
I am guessing that you a person who often misses the point and is oblivious to that fact. Obviously no one is objecting to Dart making infrastructural improvements but at what those improvements are costing us in various ways. And no, they are not free. Dart is not Santa Claus.
yes he is! yes he is! I heard that what was good for him was also good for cayman. he's just like santy! I love them both too much.
Thank you Darts ..yet again doing what our worthless UDP gang should have attended to rather than travel and seek extracurricular rewards.
You mean that the UDP couldn’t do because the PPM left the country nearly bankrupt and at the mercy of the UK. PPM need to but should be flogged first!
Guess what the country is broke or didn't you know this.
Do you expect the "Progressive" to start spending if and when they form a government. Then get ready to pay some real direct taxed BOBO.
Four woman object? Wow!
I object too, so that makes four women and one man. And there might be others if you'd like to make a count.
As soon as politicians get 'tight lipped', ordinary people get suspicious no matter what. If it goes ahead, please put a roundabout outside Lakeside Villas, To stop driversdoing illegal U turns on the most accident partr of the road. Also we have a 2 lane highway coming down from West Bay and a 2 lane highway coming up from George Town, but it all means nothing as you still have the choke point at Camana Bay.
All roads lead to…Camana Bay, the new Rome!
Bread and circuses!
Maybe you should read the article before commenting. Did the article not mention the widening of the road??? Including the Camana Bay area??? Or are we reading two different articles?
And those of you out there, when you are merging an existing road with a new road, how can you finish it when they are merging the two together? Obviously there will be a transition time from road system "A" to road system "B". If it only takes two weeks, as has been quoted, that seems quite reasonable (actually, probably more than reasonable). Simple brain exercise.
Regardless of whether or not everyone feels that there is value for money, seeing the proper improvements made (for a change) is refreshing. Ask yourselves why we have constant bottlenecks in traffic. What traffic engineer believes that you will not have chokepoints when you divide four lanes of traffic into two 2 lane roads. Just look at the mess at the Linford Pierson Highway to see that it would not work. So what did our "rocket scientists" do, they did it again with Tibbetts.
Tell Mr. Dart thanks for fixing one of our "bugaboos" for us.
No roundabout for Lakeside! How about a traffic camera so that everyone who is too lazy to drive to either roundabout gets a major fine for pulling out and turning right. I see it happen EVERY day at that development.
When is Dart going to be asked to increase the Camana Bay Road to 4 lanes. What good is it to have 4 lanes either end of that road and that road only 2 lanes. Doesn't make any sense to me
Once you have 2 lanes in both directions there will be a median between the two dual carriageways, so no way to make illegal turns into Dump Breeze Apartments or the Gallery. And I’m pretty sure the plan has always been to make it 2 lanes through Camana Bay once the main stretch is done, so no bottleneck
What? No Caymanian outrage yet? How dare Dart improve our highway without consultation – he's just taking advantage of us again to make more money. Oh, he's not making money on this? Well, it's destroying our heritage. We love that highway just the way it is. C'mon, let's get out the signs and pickets. Forget that he's been providing jobs and development for Cayman for decades. He has the audacity to make money while he's doing it. Forget that he completes projects on time without any hint of corruption or duty manipulation. It just doesn't seem right – it's not the way we do business here.
"Decades" and "Without ANY hint of corruption or duty Manipulation" HaHaHa. Best Joke Ever.
Still trying to make this a Caymanian issue? Give it up already. The kind of Skullduggery surrounding the entire project affects all. Some of the positive aspects do not justify the negative manner in which the change, good and bad, has been brought about. Some just never get it.
Dart sure is sweetening the pot on a deal that was already good value for money.
Dart sweetning his own pot.
How strange, if this deal was "value for money" before, why are we getting more now?
STop looking a gift horse in the mouth. “have a coconut water and a smile and shut the hell up”#
Please follow your own advice. YOU may be thrilled at these changes thrust upon us because you realise short-term benefit, but don't chastise those who (still) want to know the entire structure of the "deal". None of us know what CIG and Dart has us on the hook for, because the powers that be don't see fit to answer their own constituents. We don't matter. We don't have the iron to force them to tell us either, therefore … Dart will be done, and there isn't diddly that any of us can do about it.
So go ahead and enjoy your new-and-improved commute, selfish soul. I just hope your pockets are hit as hard as mine, and they will be hit, because concessions given away that were formerly part of CIG budget have to come from us.
It nah a gift horse. It more lak trojan horse. An who yah thinkin yah are tell me shut up.
Because they found something else to give away. Remember, when the 'additional lanes' first came out a Minister (not for roads) said that it wasn't as part of the WBRoad road swap but would be in return for other concessions. We just don't know what other concessions. Yet.