TOWARDS AN OPTIMAL ROAD ACCESS FOR UWI ST AUGUSTINE SOUTH GATE

: The primary access to the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus is located directly off the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway (CRH), an east-west four-lane divided urban arterial road. This access is known as the South Gate and is set back 180 metres from the CRH but is made difficult by the crossing east-west Watt Street, a collector road that services primarily pass-by traffic between the residential, commercial and school activities and the CRH. The high level of pass-by traffic comprises trips entering the area/intersection on the way from an external origin to an external destination, and includes through-traffic, as well as drop-off and pick-up of passengers. The morning and afternoon peak periods are particularly congested with the combined north-south UWI motorists and the east-west Watt Street traffic, including the associated turning flows. The situation is exacerbated by the apparent limited land space availability, such as (1) the extremely close proximity of the UWI perimeter road to Watt Street, (2) some of the Engineering Faculty buildings constructed very near the existing UWI perimeter road, and (3) the layout configuration of the current road entry and exit as well as the associated green space, all complicate any approach to readily suggest the provision of a grand campus access and frontage. As the country’s premier university in an urban environment, it is important that the campus emphasises its presence and visibility. In other words, the entire area should be reconfigured into a Campus Precinct. The constraints identified above have been taken into account in the assessment using SIDRA intersection traffic analysis software, and the resultant access tested with AIMSUN traffic simulation software.