Firm moves to ease chaos on East Bank road
By Jaime Hall
Guyana Chronicle
July 3, 2004
SEEREERAM Brothers Limited, the Trinidad-based road construction firm that is working on the East Bank Demerara four-lane highway project between Peter's Hall and Ruimveldt, yesterday said it would be working closer with the Public Works Ministry to readjust its work programme.
Officials said the works have suffered setbacks that have resulted in heavy traffic congestion along the road.
The decision to readjust the work programme was in response to concerns raised by President Bharrat Jagdeo about the long queues of vehicles along the route affecting many commuters travelling to Georgetown for work and other business.
He said he was concerned about the public inconvenience the project was causing.
Mr. Jagdeo, who briefly visited the project site yesterday, told company officials that people, particularly those travelling from the West Demerara, have been complaining about the long delays caused in reaching the city, because of the interruption due to the road works.
The President, who inspected the works while leaving for Grenada for the CARICOM Heads of Government Summit which opens tomorrow, noted that commuters are delayed for as long as three hours in trying to reach the city.
One of the main setbacks in the project is due to the inadequate supply of bitumen, which is used to build the road. Supplies are due to leave Trinidad during next week for Guyana, officials of the firm said.
They said that shipment will help to fast- track the project, making more paved areas available for vehicles to travel and ease the traffic congestion.
Mr. Jagdeo said the government would be looking at assisting the contractor by exploring the possibility of using the facilities of the state-owned GUYOIL company to store bitumen. Shell Antilles is the sole importer of bitumen to the country and has a monopoly.
The President said the absence of supplies could hamper progress in road construction projects.
To speed up the project, the company said areas that are damaged would be repaired at night and both lanes kept open at certain sections of the road. Some patch work was done on sections of the road in an effort to ease the congestion, officials said.
Mr. Walter Willis, Special Advisor to the Minister of Public Works and Communication, who was at the project site, said some adjustments had to be made in the work programme to avoid further setbacks.
Preparations are being made to drive piles to widen the Rahaman's Bridge and the Meadow Bank Bridge as part of the project, he said.
This will also cause restrictions in the traffic flow, he explained.
Eighty-foot piles would have to be put down and the machinery doing that job would take up a significant part of the roadway.
"There is no other way of doing the traffic diversion other than the way we are doing now. If we try to do anything else it will cause total chaos", Willis said.
He said the project was not going according to schedule since it began, but an undertaking was given to the President that it will be brought back in line within three months.
As of last month it was five per cent behind. However it will be brought back in line with the programme, he said.
Willis told the President that from July 10 there will be two lanes north and two lanes south between Houston and Ruimveldt.