A letter to the editor on today’s opinion pages aptly describes an issue affecting many, including visitors to the island, practically on a daily basis. The author says that while able to board a 4:20pm flight in St. Barth’s, land at Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA), disembark and exit the parking lot by car in just 33 minutes, driving the short distance to their home at Simpson Bay took longer: 36 minutes.
Traffic has been a long-standing problem for St. Maarten, due to the rapid development of its tourism economy, with infrastructure lagging behind. Much has since been done to address the matter, including the effective use of roundabouts at intersections, building of new and improvement of existing roads.
Nevertheless, as the number of vehicles continued to grow, physical limitations increasingly played a role, particularly in the example mentioned. The need to open the Simpson Bay bridge for boats remains a factor, but it’s more than that.
Most major flights arrive and depart during early afternoon hours, which contributes to the congestion.
The causeway was built for this reason and did help, but only so much. At the time, former National Alliance (NA) leader William Marlin called the project spearheaded by his political rival United People’s (UP) party leader Theo Heyliger “a bridge to nowhere,” claiming it would benefit mainly motorists heading to and coming from Marigot on the French side.
He suggested a tunnel through the hills at Cole Bay connecting Belvedere and Dutch Quarter might be the answer. Chinese investors would be willing to fund the entire venture and a related study was even done by Lievense Engineering.
This in turn prompted Heyliger to accuse Marlin of “tunnel vision” and the plan failed to materialise in the end. However, it seems by now other viable options are few and far in-between.
