By Vanessa Braithwaite
FOR the first time in the over 60 years that the Linden Soesdyke Highway has been in existence, energy- efficient lights are now being installed by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, bringing great progress to a project which started some months ago, with the placement of poles to facilitate these lights.

Driving on the highway at night now brings a whole new feeling of security for drivers and passengers at a time when road accidents have increased. The project has been dubbed a historic and a timely one, giving the upsurge in vehicular and fatal accidents, not only on the highway, but countrywide. The 45 mile uninterrupted stretch from Soesdyke to Linden, was engulfed in pitch darkness, with regional officials then calling it a virtual death-trap, especially when it fogged heavily.

One Linden-to-Georgetown driver hailed the project as progressive and said it will put a lot of drivers at ease and also cause them to ply the route later, being of service to many University of Guyana students and other persons who work in Georgetown and who travel late at night. “Many drivers don’t want to work late because of the darkness of the highway and how dangerous it is and some people does left stranded in town most nights, so now more drivers will feel safer travelling at nights. It is very encouraging, is long now we drivers calling for lights on the highway and I’m happy it finally happening,” Keon Tappin said.

LAUDABLE PROJECT
Member of Parliament, Jermaine Figueira, also lauded the efforts of the government and the MoPI for answering the call of the drivers and residents. “It shows that the government cares for the people and for their safety, so to have this part of the project expedited before the actual rehabilitation, I think it was very prudent of Minister Patterson and I applaud him for it and all residents of Region 10 welcome it,” he said.
The feasibility study for the rehabilitation of the highway is being conducted by Bestion SRKN’gineering Company and the consultants would have briefed Region 10 officials twice on their work thus far. They would have also presented activities and findings thus seeking their input on the project. The rehabilitation will commence from the Soesdyke junction and will end at the Wismar-Mackenzie Bridge, where a new bridge will also be constructed. The feasibility for the bridge has also commenced. The World Bank will cover the funding for the feasibility study of the Soesdyke-Linden Highway

DO NOT CAPITALISE
Meanwhile, Region 10 Traffic Inspector, Sherwin Henry, is urging drivers not to capitalise on the lights, to speed. Speeding is one of the leading causes of most traffic accidents on the highway. “We don’t want divers to capitalise on the lights to speed because their visibility would have increased, some of them might want to start working late, pulling more trips and their bodies can become drained and run down, we are urging drivers to be careful and don’t miss the purpose of the lights,” he said.

He said the division will not use this time to be complacent, but will be increasing its patrols, particularly night patrols and has commenced collaborated patrols with the Soesdyke Highway Out post-Traffic Department. These patrols will be heightened on the weekends, since it was ascertained that most accidents occur during that time. Sensitisation is also important to the division, Henry related. “We have our traffic awareness programmes on the media; we also go to the parks and speak with the drivers and the passengers as well, urging them not to encourage speeding. We are also encouraging divers not to move along the road left and right to avoid road damages because that can endanger other road users,” Henry posited. Ranks have also commenced a 06:00hrs speeding exercise to help curb speeding at the Millie’s Hide-Out Junction in Linden and the Bamia Police Mobile Outpost.