WIDENING AND BUILDING CONNECTOR ROADS IN GEORGETOWN AND EAST BANK ARE PART OF COUNTRYWIDE CONNECTIVITY PLAN

RECENTLY, Minister within the Public Works Ministry, Deodat Indar, reported on a road widening and road-building drive his Ministry would be effectuating in Georgetown and East Bank Demerara.  With rising incomes, more and more young persons are beginning to own motorcars, which has led to traffic jams, and an increase in traffic accidents, which results in a loss of valuable time.

The widening of roads and the building of short connector roads are part of the wider Infrastructural Development Programme of the National Development Plan.  All Development Plans regard the connectivity of the country as a sine qua non.  For example, going from the Coast into the Hinterland to such areas as Lethem or the mining areas could be done only by air which is expensive and consequently limits developmental possibilities.  Road connectivity would literally be breaking open the door of the rich Interior.  When the United States was being developed with the railroads providing connectivity with the Prairies and the far West, the injunction to youth was “Go West, young man”; in Guyana, our equivalent would soon be “Go South, young man”.

Unlike with the United States, one of the main objectives of Development is to bring the interior inhabitants, mostly Amerindians, into the mainstream so they could enjoy the goods and services and other facilities only coastlanders now enjoy.  Two services which would be a great boon to interior inhabitants are educational and health services.  The critics of the road connectivity programme who claim it is useless and a waste of money need to analyse its short and long-term effects, including its social effects.

A survey has been done of the Georgetown and East Bank Demerara road systems and the bottlenecks and choke points have been identified.  These would be relieved by widening the roads and building short connector roads.  The choke points at Grove and Eccles on the East Bank Demerara are examples.  The Grove to Success road would be paved all the way to the Cheddi Jagan Airport.  Also, tenders are soon to be issued for the paving of the Soesdyke – Linden highway.

The Georgetown roads to be upgraded have all been identified.  For example, LaPenitence Road and Saffon Street, which lead into Albouystown and High Street will be transformed into three-lane roads while Cemetery Road will be widened to four lanes leading to the Back Road.  Similar widening would be done on the road bordering the Russian embassy.

In this road renewal programme, a number of provisos must be considered.  The first of these is that all roads should have secure road shoulders.  If road shoulders are not secure, the road will begin to crumble and break off from the sides.  Brickdam, the oldest street in Georgetown, was started by the Dutch and continued by the British.  When Mr. L.F.S. Burnham was President, he had Brickdam completely rebuilt.  The mora slabs laid as part of the foundation were dug out and a great amount of concrete and steel was used for the new foundation.  When it was complete, it was the best-built road in the City, except it had no continuous shoulders.  The absence of shoulders has caused the sides of the road to gradually break off.  Accordingly, it is necessary to either seal the sides as was done in Main Street by the Trinidadian contractors or to have the sides merge into compacted earth.   There are other streets in the City where compacted earth shoulders could prolong their life.

The Ministry of Works must closely liaise with the M&CC and the Ministry of Housing to make it a requirement for the large multi-storeyed buildings which are being constructed in Georgetown to have the bottom areas of the buildings and the space at the back of the building reserved for parking.  These massive structures are commercial entities and all of the persons utilising them have motor cars which they expect to park on the roads occupying one of the lanes and so narrowing the road.  This requirement of using the bottom areas of multi-storeyed buildings needs to be quickly enforced, or the full success of the Ministry’s efforts at road renewal would be hampered. The population has already completely rejected the idea of parking meters, and parking lots have to be controlled in their charges and have to guarantee the safety of customers’ cars and should be within easy distance of the customer’s destination.  There is a scarcity of space in the downtown areas for parking lots.

Another improvement that could be made to the road renewal project is to have bays at the sides of the roads where vehicles which have broken down could be pushed.  This would prevent impeding the flow of traffic.
Finally, the aesthetics of the roads should always be kept in mind, such as having garbage collection containers, planting various flowering trees, building walkway pavements, bicycle racks and other modern improvements.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
All our printed editions are available online
emblem3
Subscribe to the Guyana Chronicle.
Sign up to receive news and updates.
We respect your privacy.