Dear Editor,
My family and dozens of other residents of Atlantic Gardens were thoroughly harassed when they were caught up in total traffic chaos on the East Coast Demerara highway on Mother’s Day at about 09:30hrs, simply because the persons responsible for road works do not give two hoots about commuters’ safety and convenience.
On Mother’s Day, my family had to travel from our Atlantic Gardens residence to attend a function at the Church of the Unification in Georgetown. They left in reasonable time to be punctual, but when they arrived at the turnoff into the highway, they were stunned to see unrestrained confusion and havoc in the traffic at the intersection.
They found out that the brilliant builders and Guyanese engineers had decided that Mother’s Day morning was the best possible time for them to do a major excavation right in the middle of one of the most heavily traversed highways in Guyana on one of the biggest observances in the year.
Furthermore, they did not think it was necessary to give the residents of Atlantic Gardens due notice in advance, and did not even see the need to put up a sign to let people know what they were doing. They casually went about their business while traffic built up all around, with frustrated commuters being clueless about where to pass.
Remember, it was Mother’s Day. Anyone with a brain knows that Guyanese get out of their homes and do a lot on this day. There are countless activities and functions on Mother’s Day. Furthermore, many people go to churches and mandirs on Sundays. Sundays are big market days in some areas.
So, you can imagine the chaos that occurred because of the road works that caught everyone by surprise on the East Coast highway that day. Traffic was backed up left, right and centre, with frustrated commuters not knowing how or when they would get out of the mess.
Why didn’t they put up signs to alert people that they would have restricted entry to their communities because of excavation works? Why didn’t they inform the public of the time frame in which these works would take place? Someone could have also distributed fliers to that effect as people were entering Atlantic Gardens.
I have a video of an old lady walking with a cane crossing the road works by balancing precariously on a piece of wood.
My family was able to get out by crossing the muddy plank with their dress shoes. They were able to be on their way because someone on the road lent them a car to get to the event, and they arrived a bit late.
I am very disappointed with this short-sighted approach by persons overseeing road works. This is slackness; it reflects contempt for the public.
Let me point out to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, and the Government of Guyana, and the NDCs and REOs and whoever else has a stake in road works: when such work is being done, especially when it would disrupt a major thoroughfare or a bridge, entrance or exit to a highly populated area, signs have to be put up to alert the public.
In many countries, except for grave emergencies, major public infrastructure works are never done during peak traffic hours.
The people who are in charge of our road works have to get their act together, or there will be hell to pay.
My advice to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure is to create a protocol guidance for opening up bridges in areas where large numbers of people live. This is to prevent annoyance and complications when the works being done can become a major hindrance to traffic.
Sincerely,
Roshan Khan Sr
