Honiara has been experiencing significant traffic congestion as one gets into the Capital and in the city center. The government is keen on undertaking transport infrastructure projects to ease traffic congestion. A bypass in the city stretching up to 4km along Hibiscus Avenue was one of the proposed projects.
According to the2017-2036 National Transport Plan, the bypass is supposed to start at the Holy Cross Cathedral up to headquarters of SIBC in Rove. This project was estimated at the value of $SBD 24 million is however still in its initial stages. In a business event, Mike Qaqara representing Infrastructure Development Ministry presented this and other proposed projects to deal with traffic menace. These included a proposed bypass starting at Henderson in a 24 kilometers road stretch to Poha. This bypass is estimated at a cost value of $240 million.
In the presentation, Mr. Qaqara reported that there were more than 23,000 ‘movements’ of cars recorded on Mataniko Bridge in Guadalcanal on a daily basis. He also noted that the number of cars in the area had increased to 15,000. These movements are much more when compared to the 21,000 ‘car movements’ recorded on Penrith’s Victoria Bridge every day. Surprisingly, Honiara population estimated to be a total of 80,000 persons is lesser than the 180,000 estimate of population in Perinth.
Mr. Qatara also projected a loss of up to $SBD 3.7 billion to the government caused by traffic jams annually.
