City Manager wants alternative access road to McNamara
A section of the main road in the McNamara area of Tortola.
City Manager Janice Brathwaite-Edwards wants an alternative route to be developed to access the McNamara area of Tortola.
She made her wishes known in light of the new, ultra-modern National Emergency Operations (NEOC)/DDM building that is to be built in that community.
“That’s where my concern would be – the access to and from the building once McNamara’s street is blocked up. My consideration is that we have a different way to access the building in case of an emergency. Maybe coming up Government House through some alley,” she said while noting that the road to the community was inaccessible after Hurricane Irma last September.
Chief Planner at the Town and Country Planning Department, Greg Adams, however, said he is not aware of any plans to expand the access road to the area. He further said he does not foresee any road expansions or development happening any time soon.
And while addressing another concern about the increased traffic to the area when the NEOC/DDM building is built, Adams said: “You can control a lot of those activities by timing. So, even though you expect more traffic, if you have deliveries, you can schedule them at certain points in time and disperse it over a 24-hour window.”
While weighing in on the discussion, DDM Director Sharleen DaBreo said McNamara is primarily a residential area and expanding the access road would effectively encroach on privately owned land.
“In terms of expanding the roadways, I’m not sure that’s going to happen – maybe not in my lifetime. What we do have now is an access point in and an access point out,” she said while speaking during a community meeting about the new NEOC/DDM building recently.
She noted that the McNamara area has had issues with flooding but said there is a solution being devised for that issue.
“We have expanded the Road Town Hydrology project to include the McNamara area so we are looking at those specific issues as it relates to the [NEOC/DDM] building but also as it relates to the wider community there.”
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We have city planning? who knew?
nation needs priority oriented minds to look after its, the people and future of this nation’s business.
Priority one must be getting education and its facilities back to normalcy, that effective teaching, learning and human progress can become a reality.
Additional roads or accesses should not be priority at our pre-Irmaria juncture.
May God guide our leaders into the right mental constructs that will materialize into needed infrastructure building decisions.
how will persons traverse in the unsafe road conditions that we presently have? Stop insulting persons intelligence and see beyond your own views. The roads are appalling and are deteriorating daily – heaven forbid another natural disaster and then result will be further degradation of a VITAL infrastructural need!
I concur with the city manager. The new facility should have an alternative access as well as other communities (Baugher’s Bay) as well. TCP not having knowledge of any proposed or future road accesses should be looking at ‘future-proofing’ the NEOC/DDM facility. IrMaria exposed our lack of development in terms of accessing vulnerable and damaged communities. NDP have not developed any new roads in their lackluster terms. The road-network has not been taken seriously under these jokers.
Whilst we are at, we need the stops lightS to regulated the unnecessary traffic especially near Sports club and the french deli.
It needed to be in another location!!! where such issues would not be a problem!
Agreed!!!
Was the land it is to be built on owned by the government or is it a purchase from a friend. That’s the only reason I can think of to put it in an awkward access area .
While you are doing something City Manager how about getting rid of the food vans, car washes, clothes sellers, who set up shop in public car parking areas ???
What is the zoning? Soc Sec building next to Pier Park, High School in City, I guess tourist jus have to wander around until they find the ‘tourist area’. The amount of money for NEOC building is laughable when essentially a large part is simply storage. Solid warehouse out of town does the job.
This City Manager is a joke. Seriously where is the enforcement? Food vendors and stalls set up wherever they feel like, taxi drivers blocking up traffic, trash and junk everywhere, guts blocked. Would we notice a difference if there was no City Manager? I dont think we would. Can she focus her attention on the basics and then we can worry about building new roads.
Agree with the City manager that alternative access routes(roads) to the EOC are needed. The EOC is a critical facility before, during and after a disaster, ie, Hurricane. Therefore, it is important to have safe and accessible alternative routes to it. Currently, the prime access is from the water side so a land side access(s) is needed. The land side access may necessitate land acquisition; it is for the public good.
Another area of concern is drainage flow from hurricane storm surge, along with surface runoff from the surrounding watershed. Drainage construction project is needed to collect, convey and discharge drainage flow to limit storm water spread and ponding on the access road(s).
Looking ahead and as the threat of global warming looms, a seawall may be needed around Road Town coastline to mitigate the impact of hurricane storm surge. True, a seawall may put Road Town in a “bowl”, requiring pump station(s) to drain Road Town.
Want to spend a wak ah mony on a sea wall to protect Road Town and build a water front walk. But what we need to fix roads, enhance reliability of water supply, sewage, and electricity, improve educational and health system, strengthen public safety functions ( police, fire, national security), rebuild and improve tourist facilities, reboot the economy, enhance port facilities……..etc b4 spending precious dollars on exotic projects.
Should the BVI be constructing a seawall in Road Town when roads, schools, police stations, fire stations, government facilities, medical facilities, port facilities …..etc are in ruin? What is the cost-benefit value of a seawall? Is a seawall a need or a want? Is a seawall a top priority in the myriad of needs on the BVI bucket list? Is a seawall a pie in sky project? Is the NEOC project too grandiose? Is it a Taj Mahal?
You can get to McNamara from Sea Cows Bay, Russell Hill and from behind the Hospital, just saying
yes…you have mentioned THREE access roads, PLUS the regular road from the Sea view Hotel intersection, which makes it FOUR.