Jan. 24, 2009 — Beginning Sunday morning and continuing for the next year, traffic moving through the Estate Thomas and Sugar Estate areas will be rerouted, allowing the Department of Public Works to complete road and drainage work on Centerline Road.
The stretch of Centerline between Raphune Hill and First Avenue, opposite the Oswald Harris Court housing community, will continue to run two ways. However, the stretch of road continuing from First Avenue to Mandela Circle — running past Vitraco Park and Pueblo Supermarket — will become one way, open only to southbound traffic, according to Public Works Commissioner Darryl Smalls.
The change in the traffic pattern also means that motorists traveling out of Frenchman’s Bay or Havensight can’t make a right onto Centerline Road at the Mandela Circle intersection, but would have to continue driving west onto Long Bay Road. Two westbound lanes running from Mandela Circle to the Lover’s Lane intersection will be opened up to help ease the traffic, Smalls said.
Motorists will still be able to travel eastbound on Long Bay Road and continue toward Havensight or Frenchman’s Bay. However, they will not be able to turn left onto Centerline Road at the Mandela Circle intersection. The rerouting will allow Public Works to install a box culvert, widen the road, install sidewalks and bury the surrounding utility lines.
The year-long effort is a part of the bigger Long Bay Road project, aimed at reducing traffic buildup in the area. For more than a year now, road crews have been busy installing box culverts near Mandela Circle and converting Veterans Drive into a four-lane highway. The box culvert will take waste from eastern Frenchman's Bay to the western side, and eventually tie into the waste-disposal system built for Havensight Mall that leads directly to the ocean. (See "Two Decades Down the Road, Officials Kick Off Long Bay Project.")
“While this is expected to take approximately one year – barring any unforeseen circumstances or weather emergencies – we are hoping to beat that time frame,” Smalls said Saturday. “In the meantime, we’re encouraging motorists to take alternate routes whenever possible, especially those traveling during the peak hours of the morning, or trying to drop students off at Charlotte Amalie High School. If you’re trying to get the hospital or post office, for example, you have to travel along Long Bay Road – adjacent to Yacht Haven Grande — go to the intersection by Lucinda Millin, make the right, proceed north on Lover’s Lane and make the right onto Alton Adams Drive (running in front of CAHS).”
Motorists intending to travel westbound from Raphune Hill to get to the Waterfront are also encouraged to travel down Centerline Road and make use of the two lanes running westbound on Long Bay Road, Smalls said. Or, residents trying to get to the V.I. Superior Court, Norre Gade or Human Services can make use of Beltjen Road instead of getting tied up when making a right at the traffic light in front of the Alexander A. Farrelly Criminal Justice Complex, he added.
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