– to significantly ease traffic congestion
THE Ministry of Public Works has upgraded the La Penitence carriageway from Punt Trench Dam to Broad Street; in an effort to ensure a free and safe flow of traffic along the corridor.
According to Road and Traffic Safety Engineer, Ministry of Public Works and Communications, Nigel Erskine, the asphalt works to the road began on September 30 and was completed on October 1. The decision to return it into a two-way road came into effect after a successful meeting with Ministers of Transport and Hydraulics and Home Affairs, Robeson Benn and Clement Rohee respectively, and engineers from the Ministry in August.
The Government Information Agency (GINA) said when it visited the site workers were painting two lanes each 3 metres (about 11 feet) wide and ‘no parking signs’ on the western side.
According to Erskine during the morning periods there is a tremendous build up of traffic from the Demerara Harbour Bridge leading into Georgetown and as such, the initiative is necessary to relieve traffic congestion and for the efficient discharge of traffic on the East Bank road into Sussex, Broad and Lombard Streets.
“Currently vehicles can only come into Georgetown through Lombard Street, but what we are trying to facilitate here is to have another alternative entrance into the city. The entire carriageway into Saffon Street has been overlaid to allow free movement to two lanes of traffic in either direction,” he said.
He noted that with the completion of the two lanes vehicles would now be allowed to come through Saffon Street and enter the city either from Sussex or Broad Streets using the secondary roads leading into the city, as was not possible previously.
The Road and Safety Engineer pointed out that it anticipated that the project will significantly ease the traffic build-up, during the peak period in the mornings.
The road has been a one-way from 06 hours to 18 hours for several years.
In line with the development, a meeting is scheduled for October 6 whereby stakeholders, stallholders and the business community will meet to discuss the way forward, as the intervention would require vendors to re-locate. 
They will be allowed to air their views and make suggestions pertaining to the new development.
“We will however have to work out arrangements as to how vendors would be required to off-load their goods at the market. What we plan to do is rehabilitate the bridge on the northern side of the market, so that vendors would be able to off-load their goods,” he noted.