Prepare for 2 days of madness!

Jul 14, 2023 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – The main cause of the East Bank traffic woes is the movement of traffic to and from the Demerara Harbour Bridge. The number of vehicles using the bridge each day is estimated at more than 22,000 and if the authorities were observing, they would notice that 7o% of the motor cars using the bridge have less than 2 passengers.

When the Demerara Harbour Bridge is operational, the traffic situation to and from West Demerara becomes a daily nightmare.  Imagine the ensuing chaos that will result as a consequence of the closure of the bridge for four days from July 24.

The purpose of the closure is to replace a span on the bridge. That process is expected to take a full four days during which time, the bridge will be totally closed to vehicular traffic.

The Ministry of Public Works and the Demerara Harbour Bridge Inc. are reportedly planning for this 3-day closure.  Among the plans which are being put in place are a twenty-four-hour service of speed boats and ambulances, free shuttle between the Vreed-en-Hoop junction and the stelling. Those plans are not going to bring relief. They are merely attempts to alleviate the chaos that will result. A twenty-four-hour speed boat service raises serious safety concerns. And a free shuttle from the Vreed-en-Hoop junction to the stelling is not going to ease the congestion that will result at the stelling.

No number of plans is going to be of much relief unless there is a reduction in the number of pedestrians using the speedboat crossings. What has to be managed is the number of persons using the river crossing. With the closure of the bridge for days, the almost 40,000 persons who crisscross the bridge each day will be required to travel by speedboat. It is impossible for the present fleet of speed boats to take off this increase in traffic.

Permission has reportedly been given for a second crossing with the possibility of a third boat crossing. The objective here is obviously to avoid the overcrowding at the Stabroek and Vreed-en-Hoop Stellings.  But a second and a third crossing are not going to bring much relief because there are simply not enough boats to take off the increase in the number of persons who will have to now cross the river by speedboat.  You will still have overcrowding at the Vreed-en-Hoop and Stabroek Stellings because it will mean fewer boats plying those routes.

As such, there is likely to be a serious back-up of persons waiting to cross the river. This is going to present problems for human safety. Very few speedboats are going to be able to work for twenty-four hours.  This suggestion shows the flaws in the planning process.

The boat operators are not machines. They have to rest and their boat engines will have to be serviced. There are also not enough boat operators to allow for a 24-hour shift. Even increasing the number of landings for river crossing will not help because the number of vessels plying the river cannot increase sufficient enough to take off the traffic. That is why numbers planning is so important; it would have revealed that the plans being put forward by the government and the Harbour Bridge will not work. Chaos will result.

What is needed is for a reduction in the numbers of persons crossing the river during the closure of the bridge. But tens of thousands have to get to work. But what if those tens of thousands did not have to get to and from work?

This is where government intervention is needed. The government employs thousands of workers who reside in West Demerara. Even the President has a home in West Coast Demerara. Government can provide its workers who live on West Demerara with paid special leave so that they do not have to come to work for those three days. Schools are closed so this will help because less children will be using the river crossing.

The private sector should be encouraged to chip in. Unless the private sector is providing an emergency service, they too should give their workers residents in West Demerara three days of special leave. The government cannot manage the increased river crossing traffic that will result from the closure of the bridge. The only thing they can do is to reduce the need for persons to travel and the best way to do this is to grant a four-day work holiday for workers from West Demerara. But since these suggestions are emanating from outside of government, they are not likely to be adopted. The alternative however is 4 days of bedlam.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• daily, Demerara Harbour Bridge Inc., East Bank, nightmare, traffic

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