The memory of Sharon Wainwright, who led the push for air travel to St Helena, is to be honoured in the naming of a section of the airport access road.
Wainwright Way was one of seven winning entries in a competition to find names for sections of the road, originally built to carry construction traffic up from Rupert’s Valley.
Sharon was in London in her role as St Helena Government’s airport project manager when she died suddenly on 15 August 2011, only weeks before it was announced that construction would go ahead.
Governor Andrew Gurr said at the time that people who benefited from the airport would owe gratitude to her memory for decades to come.
A competition was held in July to choose a name for the haul road, once it is opened to the public. In the end, seven names were chosen for different sections.
Councillor Pamela Ward Pearce said: “We liked African Slave Road as this shows the area where the recent excavations uncovered the slave graves. Airbay Road was felt to encompass the flow of the road from the airport to Rupert’s Bay.
“Boer Road and Pipe Ridge Pass were sections near the old roads of those names, while Flagstaff View and Wirebird Way are sections where you have a view of Flagstaff and the wirebird nesting area respectively.
“Finally Wainwright Way was chosen to honour our own Sharon Wainwright, who worked so hard to make the airport a reality but sadly did not live to see it to fruition.”
Wainwright Way was suggested by Jean-Claude George, Keegan Yon and Jacob Williams. Other winning names were put forward by Alexandra Benjamin (Wirebird Way), Keegan Yon, Pascal Walters (Pipe Ridge Pass), Charlize Crowie (Flagstaff View), Victoria Mastna, Joshua O’Bey and Renee Youde (Boer Road), Tyran Henry (Airbay Road), and Colby Richards (African Slave Road).
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