Double-lane opening at DHB should be extended – drivers

Traffic woes

Confusion at the Demerara Harbour Bridge in recent time has left many commuters in an exasperated mode, having to wait for over an hour to traverse the structure during the morning hours.

Now, many have called on the authorities to extend the double lane provision to reduce this traffic build-up. The current schedule involves a double-lane opening from 07:00h to 07:30h to allow for traffic control. However, this has not been effective in solving the issue. On a normal morning, over four lanes of traffic lead to the gates of the bridge, which can only facilitate one lane of vehicles from both sides. This is coupled with an auxiliary line through the La Grange Old Road.
As such, officers on site would rotate the lines, which causes the traffic to extend hundreds of feet. On Friday morning, one minibus driver who was traversing from the West Bank of Demerara (WBD) sought to comment on the dreaded situation.
Naresh Dhanpaul told Guyana Times that he takes close to an hour in the waiting line and then some 30 minutes to cross the Demerara River. With the growing number of vehicles and persons moving to Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), he called for officials to extend the double lane and ease some of the woes from commuters.
“This thing here is frustrating. They should open the double lane some more and push out some of the traffic from this side. In the morning, persons not really using the bridge to come over this side (WBD) so they could see how to fix it so that people don’t got to wait so long. You see I come in this line since 08:00h. Now is 09:00h and now I get to cross,” he lamented.
According to him, many public transportation drivers are refusing to work during these periods, because of the additional time and petrol being consumed.
“It get just a couple of we working now like up to 09:00 cause the traffic too much, too much…Them (the other drivers) saying that the gas and time that you wasting in the line not compensating for the money that we making. Is too long now that this thing going on but not it getting worse,” Dhanpaul told this publication.
Just two weeks ago, PPP/C Presidential Candidate, Dr Irfaan Ali acknowledged the travails of commuters from West Demerara who have to cross the old, expired, floating DHB daily to work or do business.
He was at the time speaking to supporters at a rally in Stewartville, West Coast Demerara.
An average of 10,000 vehicles traverses the crossing daily. Ali noted the thousands of man-hours lost to the national economy, not to mention the mental turmoil inflicted when those commuters have to waste an average of four hours daily to cross.
He committed to fulfilling the plans of the PPP Government when a four-lane fixed-span modern concrete bridge, with cloverleaf exits and entries was designed by local engineers and staff of the DHB.