Three Miles Bypass to open tomorrow

The Three Miles Bypass in St Andrew, which is to help ease traffic congestion arising from road construction in the area, will open tomorrow, said the National Works Agency (NWA).

The new roadway, which will serve as a bypass to a section of Spanish Town Road, will be officially opened to traffic at 4 p.m.

The bypass runs from the end of Chesterfield Drive (the access road to the Seaview Gardens Community) to Marcus Garvey Drive in the vicinity of the Tinson Pen Aerodrome.

The NWA's Communications Manager Stephen Shaw said that the two-lane, 1.5-kilometre roadway is designed primarily to take motorists from Six Miles towards downtown Kingston, while motorists going to Half-Way-Tree may also choose to use it as an option to get on to East Avenue from Marcus Garvey Drive.

Shaw said that an extra right turning lane has been added at the Pennwood Road-Chesterfield Drive intersection along Spanish Town Road to accommodate the anticipated increase in motorists who will be turning on to the new roadway.

ADDED INTERSECTIONS

He explained that two additional intersections along the new route have been signalised - one at Pacific Boulevard in Seaview Gardens and the other at Marcus Garvey Drive - to ensure safety and effective traffic management.

When travelling out of Kingston, motorists will be able to easily access the new roadway from Marcus Garvey Drive via a slip road.

Work on a similar slip road, designed to take westbound motorists from Chesterfield Drive back on to Spanish Town Road, will be completed in the upcoming week, said the NWA.

The agency noted that the slip road on to Spanish Town Road is incomplete as telecommunications company FLOW is yet to lower a manhole along the area, which is currently higher than the existing road surface.

Motorists are, therefore, required, in the interim, to be guided by the traffic signals at the Spanish Town Road-Chesterfield Drive intersection.

The NWA is urging motorists to exercise due care when attempting to enter Spanish Town Road from Chesterfield Drive.

Work on the bypass began in September under a US$1-million contract with China Harbour Engineering Company.