Work on the final chapters of the East-West Arterial’s draft environmental statement is nearing completion, and the National Roads Authority is looking to hold public meetings on the project early in the new year.
NRA Transportation Planner Marion Pandohie, in response to Cayman Compass queries on the long-awaited project, said, “The team is working assiduously to finalize chapters for the completion of the Draft Environmental Statement.”
She said the draft is to be made “available in time for the final round of public meetings” to be held in late January or early February.
NCC meeting
The project is also listed on the NCC agenda for this week’s National Conservation Council meeting, planned for Wednesday afternoon.
The Environmental Assessment Board, led by Director of the Department of Environment Gina Ebanks-Petrie, is expected to provide an update on the arterial, the Port Zeus project on Cayman Brac and the planned airport projects.
According to the NRA’s Environmental Impact Assessment webpage on the project, the EIA process “concludes with the creation of an Environmental Statement (ES), which includes a detailed account of the EIA process, methodologies, findings, and recommendations”.
The environmental statement, it added, is a public document and “is the basis for a community discussion of a proposed project”.
The last update on the NRA road project was in August, when it was confirmed that Route B3 was selected by Cabinet as the preferred route for the new road network.
Differing views
The Transport Ministry, in a previous statement on the EWA, said the route was selected “after a rigorous, data-driven analysis highlighted its superior alignment with the Cayman Islands’ long-term infrastructure vision”.
The route was one of four alternatives shortlisted for the long-debated and divisive East-West Arterial extension, slated to expand the road eastward along the southern reaches of Grand Cayman’s Central Mangrove Wetland.
The four route options were eventually cut down to two, routes B2 and B3, based on cost-benefit analysis, the ministry had said.
The selected route, identified as B3, would provide a new roadway connection to the existing two-lane Bodden Town Road between Woodland Drive and Frank Sound Road.
Local environmental group Sustainable Cayman has objected to the choice, saying it will likely cause damaging impacts should it go forward.
Sustainable Cayman told the Compass that it “stands firmly with the fact that Route B2 is better than any other route shortlisted by the proponent”.
It said it “wholeheartedly” rejects the chosen route for the East-West Arterial extension.
The ministry, in a previous statement to the Compass, said that routes B2 and B3 scored equally in the cost-benefit analysis for the project, but “Route B3 was ultimately selected as it still aligned more with the original long-term gazette while [minimising the impact on] lands owned by the National Trust [with] more favourable constructability”.
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