GUYANA has emerged from a plantation society wherein roads were primarily designed for industrialization — to move products and provide service; not for a growing population or use of transportation. Outside of few exceptions: such as the Demerara Harbour Bridge, Canje Bridge, Soesdyke/Linden highway, Berbice and Demerara roads, which had taken all of the aforesaid into consideration with an eye to ensure future development, roads were built with a mind-set of just moving products from point A to point B.

A modern road system factors in considerations like safety of vehicle occupants; minimising property damage and bodily harm; noise barriers; hazards; multiple types of vehicles; proximity to homes and vulnerable institutions; movement of people; conditions such as run-off or standing water, including trenches and rivers. Understanding these require the study of communities, indigenous geography, human habits, and future development.

News that an overpass road and pedestrian walkover are soon to be built on the East Bank Demerara are steps in the right direction, and represent the first of its kind here. Infrastructural development sparks ideas and brings new development and opportunities for jobs, entrepreneurship/commerce, timely movement, and so forth. In building an overpass, engineering feasibility is expected to examine issues such as flooding and water lodging, which can affect the foundation. An overpass may require a complete foundation, and this would require technical inputs such as soil analyses; civil engineering to determine required strength of the foundation — whether the ground is stable, given that our coastland is sand and the foundation can shift.

Study could also aid in assessing durability and longevity, where the concern will be only about upkeep and maintenance. We can look at other societies and see how this is done. For instance, in the structure, would the choice be steel versus concrete, where the former is flexible and the latter can break and be prone to internal cracking that leads to failure, fatigue and collapse?

We have to build a road system that can withstand our climatic conditions, such as water/flood, heat, and wind. Anything that is elevated would have to factor in irrigation, as run-off water has to be properly directed to minimise flooding; the structure from sinking; impeding traffic; creating bodily harm, and millions of dollars in property damage.

Road network development in our society is limited to intersection with traffic lights, circles, overpass and bridges; and should be discussed and evaluated from economic, ecological, and social perspectives as to feasibility, and not merely to satisfy an immediate need. It is not unfair to say the traffic light system is in dire need of overhaul. The present structure leads to chaos and confusion in stopping and parking; and the presence of slow-moving vehicles, aka donkey carts, pedestrians and animals, in the flow of traffic pose threats to life, limbs and economy. An updated light system could come after proper study of the traffic flow, peak and off-peak periods, flow between primary and secondary roads to determine interval that lights should be red or green on the main road to accommodate secondary roads.

We can also look at the creation of circular roads, which allow traffic to go in four different directions without the use of a light, and still with the mind-set of a primary or secondary road.

Many of our roads weren’t built for the present volume of traffic, load and modern vehicles. With so many more vehicles — including heavy-duty ones — not catered for, the structures are cracking. Roads are constantly being resurfaced, and there are more casualties due to speeding and proximity of the roads to the homes; and this area, too, is deserving of attention. Some societies build roads where the concrete or gravel is poured within a structure, rather than be the structure — which ensures rigidity and keeping of form. Our boundaries to the road tend to be trenches, and the roads tend to crack or change their shape, making it hazardous for users.

In some areas, as a result of repairs that have seen years of packing dirt, it is difficult for the disabled and elderly to get in and out of their homes. A modern system would factor in loads — which means building with a foundation and barrier, so that the shape would be maintained and repairs and maintenance would be less expensive in the long run.

There has to be a sustainable method behind everything that is done, and we need a road system that can accommodate and withstand at least double the amount of traffic we have in the next twenty years.