Published 17 January 2018
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
Ministry, Public Works rebuff concern of National Museum over traffic light installation
Basseterre, St. Kitts, January 17, 2018 – The Ministry responsible for Public Works has ignored the concerns of the National Museum with regard to the installation of traffic lights near its premises on the Bay Road.
Executive Director of the St. Christopher National Trust, Ryllis Percival has gone public and has voiced concerns the organization and others have, since parts of the fenced area installed to protects passers-by from injury due to falling debris, were removed to allow the construction of equipment to mount the traffic signals.
WINNFM has reported that the rush to have the traffic signal lights operational has highlighted more major concerns, especially around the National Museum, formerly known as the Old Treasury Building. The National Museum is owned by the National Trust of which the patron is Governor General Sir Tapley Seaton.
“The alarm has been sounded with regards to the safety of pedestrians and possibility of damage to vehicular traffic directly below the structure; the structural integrity of the Old Treasury building; and the apparent ignoring of legitimate concerns by the relevant authorities,” said the WINNFM report.
“Over the past years, pieces of brick, and other debris, from the National Museum building, have fallen down onto the sidewalk below, and in the street as well. As a precautionary measure, the immediate area north of the building, facing the Circus, has been cordoned off by a board fence,” said the report.
In December, pedestrian signal lights were placed right next to the building, behind the boarded up area.
“As they decided to install the lights, we met with the sub-contractors from Jamaica and the representatives from public works, early in December and we raised our concerns about the installation of the lights directly on to building. Now having the pedestrians to get access to the pedestrian crossing signal they would have had to remove the boards which now have placed the pedestrians and vehicular traffic at severe risk because right under where the pedestrian push signal stand is, is where the building is breaking up very, very badly.
“At any time pieces of debris, rocks, and masonry can fall and hit somebody. We had asked them earlier even before they poured and installed the stand, to place them farther away from the building, closer to the edge of the sidewalk so that the boards can remain up and the pedestrians can be safe and vehicular traffic,” Percival told WINNFM.
She stated that those suggestions were not heeded and of course the company, Public Works and the Ministry continued in their efforts to install the lights, and ignored the concerns of the members of the National Trust which included the Building and Sites committee members and the President and the Executive Director.
Percival also expressed her displeasure with the response received once concerns were voiced, specifically toward removal of the safety barrier.
“We were told that they can take all the boards down. They were instructed to take all the boards down, and that because the sidewalks as they put it, belongs to Public Works, Public Works has jurisdiction that they can take the boards down. So our concerns are not heeded, they really to me don’t really care that we are trying to protect the public and they have decided to do whatever they care to do outside of our suggestions, our concerns, knowing, they know what the situation is with the building, they themselves the Public Works engineers have looked at the building and sometime last year, they know what the structural integrity of the building is and so they are fully aware that removing the boards was not a very good idea.”
The installation of traffic signal lights is costing US$600,000, which Minister of Infrastructure Ian “Patches” Liburd promised on December 13, 2017 would be commissioned on December 18, 2017.
Since then the Minister and officers of the Traffic Department have given various reasons for the delay including non-arrival of major pieces of equipment, lack of consultation, no legislation on the books, draft legislation sitting in the Office of Attorney General Vincent Byron and ongoing last minute changes as workmen were still cutting up roads and sidewalk on Wednesday in three areas where the traffic lights have been installed.
A number of areas also have new parking restrictions, including area along Wellington Road, in front of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Parking is prohibited along that entire stretch.
