The National Works Agency (NWA), in an effort to improve road safety and decrease traffic fatalities along the Palisadoes roadway, has embarked on a new road safety feature geared at advancing the protection of motorists and other road users, along the Palisadoes Road (popularly called the Airport Road), which has been deemed prone to errant vehicular activities. Manager of Communication and Customer Services at the NWA, Stephen Shaw, says this safety facility, called a Cable Crash Barrier System, is being used in Jamaica for the very first time and utilises wire rope fencing as a barrier against vehicles running off course.
Mr. Shaw says the Palisadoes road has been chosen as a pilot project based on the results of safety audits conducted along this roadway subsequent to the completion of the Palisadoes Shoreline Protection and Rehabilitation Project. These results revealed high probabilities for errant vehicles to:
- Overturn upon contact with steep embankments along the Palisadoes strip;
- Collide into huge boulders in areas where the roadway is close to the rock revetment existing along the roadway;
- Skid on loose shoulders at various points along the roadway;
- Hit pedestrians on the boardwalk;
- Run off the road into the harbour (ocean).
The installation of the Cable Crash Barrier System is expected to reduce the likelihood of these occurrences thus reducing the incidences of fatal road accident along the recently improved Palisadoes roadway. The wire rope fencing is malleable to force, deflecting against strong force before gradually assuming its original position. This will reduce the impact on vehicles crashing against it, hence reducing damage to vehicles and passengers.
The Palisadoes Roadway Cable Crash Barrier Project, the preparatory works of which began on March 30, 2015 and currently in progress, will cover 5.5 kilometres of the Palisadoes roadway, from the Harbour View Round-about to the Airport Round-About. It is being funded by the Road Maintenance Fund (RMF), at a cost of J$9-million and is being implemented through the NWA’s Force Account System, using an in-house team who will be trained in tensioning of the cables by the overseas cable barrier supplier, SAFENCE.
The project is scheduled for completion at the end of July 2015.
