2023 Freetown DAT Report - Flipbook - Page 23
Freetown DAT
20
Kissy Junction Station District
Kissy Junction is a notable gateway to Freetown along
Bai Bureh Road, Freetown’s original highway. At the
intersection of the King George Avenue and Ferry Road,
which serves the Kissy Ferry, most trips to and from
the east of Freetown travel through Kissy Junction. It is
a major freight gateway and a significant interchange
between regional buses, city buses, and smaller taxis
and TukTuks. Extensive roadside commerce also
occurs on every leg of the intersection. The location is
a logical choice for a cable car station that could ideally
intercept many trips from the east on their way towards
downtown.
A potential layby transit interchange could be located immediately west of the Hillside Bypass station.
Example of a highway layby transit interchange (Hong Kong).
At the southwest corner of the main intersection is
the Peace Village—a compact warren of residences,
shops, light manufacturing and craftspeople. The
original alignment of the cable car was thought to
need Bai Bureh as a right-of-way for pylons before the
route climbed to Hillside Bypass, requiring the station
to land within the Peace Village. The impact would
be significant, but further exploration has shown Bai
Bureh and Hillside Bypass do not directly align, and a
more southerly location is preferable. This happens to
be in the northeast corner of the adjacent Sierra Leon
Roads Authority yards. Not only does this location
enable a better alignment for pylons on Hillside Bypass’
median or southern curbline, it opens up a unique
opportunity to avoid impacting the Peace Village and
instead develop a significant portion of the SLRA lands
into mixed-use development—exactly the kind of tripreducing intervention that will aid Freetown’s congestion
problems.
The station itself is similar to Government Wharf’s
station, requiring a cable car barn, potentially a power
house, and a future cable car extension option—this time
eastward along Bai Bureh. Unlike Government Wharf,
the Kissy Junction station should become a notable
transit center, providing berths for regional and local
buses interchanging passengers with the cable car. This
transit center would need ample space for taxis and
The Peace Village adjacent to the proposed cable car station would be exposed to a much greater catchment of
customers and visitors.
