Land transport: Victoria bypass project to be completed in a month’s time |25 February 2017
The Victoria bypass project which will link the Anse Etoile market to Latanier Road via Ile Aurore will be completed by the end of next month and will be opened to traffic as of mid April.
According to the Minister for Habitat, Infrastructure and Land Transport Charles Bastienne who has made the announcement, the bypass will considerably ease traffic flow in Victoria. This is because it will permit traffic travelling from East to part of North Mahé to avoid two currently busy roundabouts – those of 5thJune Avenue and Le Chantier – as well as the congested Anse Etoile road, especially in the Independent School area at Union vale.
As part of the project, construction of the bridge which will link Anse Etoile to Ile Aurore has already completed and work on the one between English River and the Inter Island Quay is expected to end soon.
Start of asphalting of the new road between Anse Etoile and Ile Persévérance will also start next week. This will be immediately followed by the building of a new link which will go from the Seychelles Nation newspaper office to Latanier Road, via the ex-Children’s Playground.
If this new stretch of road will be a two lane - opening to three lanes at Le Chantier Roundabout and four at Latanier Road - government has bigger plans to in the future link this southern exit of Victoria, with four lanes going from Seychelles Nation through Ile Hodoul. For the time being, the next phase of the bypass project will be the placing of a roundabout in the STC Hypermarket area and a drop off point opposite International School. A foot bridge will connect from the drop off point to the school.
Meanwhile, the idea of a new road between the STC Hypermarket and Weeling’s shop at Mont Fleuri has been abandoned for the moment. This, in order to provide enough funds for the improvement of Latanier Road and because of high voltage cables in the area. However, the footpath which goes past the Seychelles Institute of Teacher Education (SITE) and the building which housed the former School of Maritime Studies will be improved, with proper lighting installed.
Another project which has been put on hold is the addition of a vehicular lane on Francis Rachel Street, opposite Fiennes Esplanade and between Stad Popiler and the Le Chantier Roundabout.
Speaking to the press yesterday afternoon, Minister Bastienne also talked about two other imminent projects aimed at easing traffic flow in East Mahé. The first is the widening of the Plaisance Roundabout, for which negotiations with land owners concerned are ongoing. Part of the Ste Thérèse Road between the roundabout and Butcher’s Grill will also be widened.
The second – a roundabout at the Seychelles International Airport and a third lane up to the Seychelles Police Academy – is aimed at helping solve the huge traffic problem between the end of the Providence Highway and Anse Aux Pins, especially in mornings and evenings.
Minister Bastienne has however confirmed that the long-term plan is to stretch the highway up to Anse Aux Pins. This will be through Ile Soleil and via land to be reclaimed principally for the construction of a second runway.
The minister has also announced that his technicians have started working on the preparations for the feasibility study for the two tunnels – one between Cascade and Grand Anse and the other connecting English River and Beau Vallon – proposed by President Danny Faure in his State-of-the-nation address on February 14.
Before that, a new link to be built between the Seventh Day Adventist church at St Louis and the Bel Air multipurpose court is expected to improve traffic flow between Beau Vallon and Victoria.