Prospect bridge being paved to mitigate traffic jams
Stabroek News
December 2, 2003
The completed half of the Prospect bridge is in the process of being paved so as to reduce the severe traffic jams that had commuters last week waiting in line up to two hours along the East Bank Demerara public road.
Paving of the section was expected to be done either last evening or this evening.
Public Relations Consul-tant, Ministry of Public Works, Ajay Baksh told Stabroek News yesterday that a probe into the huge build-up over the last three days of last week had shown that vehicles were crossing the bridge very slowly.
A Diamond resident had told this newspaper that that particular section had been in a deplorable state with several big holes.
This problem was remedied on Saturday with gravel. Rehabilitation of the Prospect bridge is one of 60 such projects between Timehri and Rosignol funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Meanwhile, work on the road rehabilitation project between the Demerara Har-bour Bridge and Mandela Avenue has commenced several sections are being cleared including an area at Houston to accommodate the proposed four-lane, two-way access.
This project, being undertaken by Trinidadian Com-pany, Seereeram Bros, is aimed at securing greater access to the city by the widening of the roadway.
A recent letter writer to this newspaper had suggested several options to deal with traffic congestion from the East Bank, including restricting parking on some streets and opening others to two-way traffic.
Baksh said most of these suggestions had already been given consideration by the ministry and were found not to be favourable to the current strategy.
According to Baksh, there are clear guidelines established for effecting changes to the current traffic movements, including consulting with stakeholders, surveys and practical experiments and studies. These can further be supplemented by traffic counts.
However, work to improve the Lombard Street access was anticipated as part of the general road improvement project and would shortly be undertaken, Baksh confirmed.