Minister for Environment Katherine Ebanks-Wilks says she plans to raise the National Conservation Council’s latest concerns about the East-West Arterial extension with government caucus, following a letter urging Cabinet to reconsider the road’s previously approved route.
The council’s letter, dated 8 Aug. and signed by chair Ian Kirkham, calls on Cabinet to review its decision to pursue the 8-mile B3 route through the southern edge of Grand Cayman’s Central Mangrove Wetland.
In a 16 Sept. email to the Compass, Ebanks-Wilks indicated that, given that “the letter of 8 August is essentially requesting a change to a prior Cabinet’s decision, [it] is not a decision to be made lightly”, advising of her intention “to take the matter raised in the NCC’s letter to Caucus for discussion”.
The East-West Arterial project – an 8-mile road extension to the eastern districts – initially considered four possible routes before officials narrowed the choices to B2 and B3, with Cabinet ultimately directing the project be carried out along route B3, which the Ministry of Infrastructure said in a press release provided the “optimal balance between infrastructure development and environmental stewardship”.
In its review of the project’s environmental impact assessment, the National Conservation Council’s Environmental Assessment Board flagged three main concerns with the selected route: costs, the scale of environmental damage and the limited traffic relief expected over the long term, reiterating the board’s longstanding view that route B2 would be a better option.
The board specified that B2 would be cheaper to build and maintain, impact fewer acres of sensitive habitat and result in lower greenhouse gas emissions. It said it would also generate an estimated US$11.5 million more in long-term transportation benefits, mainly through improved travel times and vehicle operating cost savings.
At that meeting, the council confirmed that its letter had been sent to Ebanks-Wilks, enclosing both the board’s final report and a cover letter summarising its key findings for Cabinet’s review.
On the campaign trail earlier this year, then Caymanian Community Party leader André Ebanks – now premier – promised his party would back route B2. But with just two of eight Cabinet seats in the National Coalition for Caymanians government, he will need to win over at least two more ministers to deliver on that pledge.
The National Conservation Council noted that if Cabinet were to reconsider its choice of route B3 in favour of B2, that decision would need to come quickly, before surveys and design work advance too far along B3.
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