mystery road

The bypass - which is being funded by the Federal Highway Administration - veers off Queen Mary Highway near the Pickard Building, heads east through several sections cut through the hills overlooking Christiansted, crosses over Peter's Farm Road and King Cross Street and stops at East End road in Mount Welcome.

The project was designed in 1975 to give an alternate route to heavy trucks headed for the container port at Gallows Bay.

Phase one and two - which included cutting the roadway through the hills, stabilizing the slopes and grading - are nearly complete, with only minor work remaining, Smalls said. The first two phases cost about $19 million combined, Smalls said.

V.I. Paving won the contract for phase one from Contentment Road to King Cross Street and Colorado-based Kirkland Construction was awarded the section from King Cross to East End Road in Mount Welcome.

David said phase three will include constructing sidewalks, conduits for street lamps and traffic signals and will cost an estimated $7 million. A contract for the work is expected to be awarded soon and the work anticipated to be completed in about a year.

In the fourth and final phase, the roads will be paved, striped and traffic signals and street lamps will be put in place. Phase four is expected to start immediately after phase three and end about a year later, when the bypass will be opened for traffic.

Smalls led the tour to a site that is being considered for a scenic overlook of the historic town and harbor and talked about why the roadway will benefit Christiansted. He said by diverting a lot of the traffic and heavy equipment that now must go through town, the department can begin to look at ways to improve infrastructure in the downtown area.

"Without having a true bypass around the downtown area, it almost is prohibitive for us to get into the downtown area to address drainage, sidewalks, sewage system and I know the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority has a major endeavor where they would like to start placing a lot of their overhead utilities underground," he said.

Smalls said additional shoring up of the steep slopes along the bypass has been completed. Concrete blocks with 32-foot-deep anchors to stabilize the slopes are in place, he said. He also said that retaining walls will soon be built to deal with erosion issues.

Soon Come LOL

Maybe it can connect to the Bridge to Nowhere and we can drive to STX?????

Pamela

The "bipass" has been the most frustrating public project that I can ever remember here. It should have been built 20 years ago and now it seems that it will take 20 years to complete. This is worse than island time, this is disgraceful time. This project could and SHOULD have been completed in less than a year.

The politicians and contractors should all be buried under the pavement. But that would delay it further.

They'd make good speed bumps,

Let's not forget the potholes!!!

Maybe it can connect to the Bridge to Nowhere and we can drive to STX?????

Pamela

Dam, I was thinking the same thing, you beat me to it!

Anyone know anything about the road being cut in the Jasmine Hill area on STX? (Jasmine Hill is off route 79 which runs between Northside and Sunny Isle.)

Juanita, I think that is a housing development. There was talk of a different additional access point. The road is only 1.25 miles long, ey yi yi
Here are a bunch of pictures

http://www.edensouth.com/Archives/CstedBypass.html

I remember asking in all earnestness 14 1/2 years ago "Why don't they just build a bridge to St. John?". Beside the obvious deep water problem I now can see the other problems - pot holes on a bridge 🙂

Pamela

The By-Pass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY0iANGEb9I

Juanita, I think that is a housing development. There was talk of a different additional access point. The road is only 1.25 miles long, ey yi yi
Here are a bunch of pictures

http://www.edensouth.com/Archives/CstedBypass.html

Only 1.25 miles in Virgin Island terms is how long?
The road to Rapune hill under construction has been going on for what, a year and a half?
And it`s I don`t know,.25 miles, 1/2 done?
I saw 5 guys watching a guy shovel a few times, but I`m not there often, so I don`t know what(if anything) goes on there.

Maybe the Triathalon will help???

Thank you for your detailed report Bombi- I really did want some historical prospective. I am sure many, many dollars have been invested thus far and hope we can reap the benefits of a bypass that will take oversized vehicles off the roads near the harbor.
Your remarks are always appreciated.