Green Island gets traffic lights to ease congestion, safety woes

Western Bureau:

The staff at the Princess Hotel and Resort in Green Island, Hanover, and the 1,600 students at the nearby Green Island High School, will now find it much easier to negotiate the roadway in that area as two sets of traffic lights have been commissioned into service to facilitate smooth travel flow along that busy thoroughfare.

The lights, which cost J$30 million, were funded by the Princess Hotels and Resorts. They are located at the entrance to the hotel and the entrance to the school. The National Works Agency (NWA) was the implementing agency.

They were officially commissioned into service by Enrico Pezzoli, managing director of the Princess Resorts, who described the installation of the lights as much needed and something that has made the management and staff of the hotels very excited.

“This is a very good thing for Green Island. It is a very good thing for the hotel, and it is a very good thing for the safety of everyone,” Pezzoli told The Gleaner. “The idea pretty much came from the beginning [when the hotel was built]. We knew that there was going to be a lot of traffic in terms of staff members and guests, and at the same time, we are very close to a high school, where they have over 1,600 students, so immediately, we saw the need to request the installation of traffic lights in both areas: in front of the hotel and in front of the school.

“We are very excited that this project was approved and completed because the safety of our team members, guests, students, and their parents is our top priority.”

Michael McIntosh, a vice-principal at Green Island High School, who, along with some of his students, was present for the commissioning of the lights, told The Gleaner that they were very happy to have the traffic light at the school gate because it created a welcome layer of safety for the students.

“It means that the drivers who traverse this thoroughfare will have some mandatory rules to obey with the implementation of the traffic-lights system, and so we welcome this initiative,” he stated.

With the Green Island High School on a shift system, McIntosh argued that the lights at the school gate would enable a smooth transition with the students coming and going between shifts.

LONG-STANDING CONCERN

Heatha Miller-Bennett, the newly elected member of parliament for Hanover Western, who was present for the commissioning of the lights, said the traffic situation in the vicinity of the school was a long-standing concern for her.

“I welcome this initiative, and I want to thank all the persons who partnered to make these lights a reality,” she said in hailing the Princess Hotels for its role as a good corporate entity. “I am happy because the students will be safer, and so I want to encourage the pedestrians and the drivers to obey the signals because these lights will be helping to keep the Green Island community safer.”

Janel Ricketts, community relations officer at the NWA, told The Gleaner that the lights greatly assisted the NWA with making the corridor safer.

“It has been a very rewarding partnership in that the traffic along that corridor has increased a lot, and the Princess Hotels has helped in terms of improving the safety along the whole corridor, not just at the gate of the hotel,” said Ricketts, who added that the NWA would be playing an active role in educating the students on the proper way to use the traffic signals. “It is a part of the NWA’s mandate to improve road safety, not just to institute the signs and signals but also to educate the students how to use them.”

editorial@gleanerjm.com