Weekly Column

They were against it from the start. They could not swallow naming it after “Tom Adams” on its completion and twenty-five years later, it still sticks in their craw. Opposition to this vital and visionary transportation link has been dragged through ten years in office and fourteen in opposition by the Dems.

In a display of petulance more befitting a schoolgirl than a Prime Minister, Barbadians learnt of the demise of the Barbados Labour Party’s plan to make the Highway more responsive to the traffic demands of a new century, during last year’s Budgetary Proposals.

At that time, the first phase of the expansion of the Highway from Wildey to Warrens - was scheduled for a June completion, with installation of the overpass bridges to follow.

A year later, we have heard from the Minister of Transport that work should be completed this August at a cost of $134 million. It has taken the Government an entire year to extend the medians one hundred feet on either side of each roundabout and relocate the traffic bottleneck from the Shell gas station to the Texaco gas station in Wildey.

This is the sum total of their effort after eighteen months and millions of dollars more. And they have the gall to prance up and down about spending your money responsibly.

Far from solving the traffic problems on the Highway they have exacerbated them. They are forcing two lanes of traffic around the roundabouts that have been redesigned to accommodate one lane because the other lane would have used the now abandoned overpass bridges. Motorists would have had a choice to either go over the roundabout or stay at ground level if they needed to exit at that roundabout.

Barbadians will recall that the circumference of the islands at the centre on the roundabouts was increased to accommodate the overpass structures, thereby reducing the existing roadway. Minister Boyce has found a way of making two go into one - to the detriment of motorists who are constantly in danger of collision on the roundabouts.

The decision to abandon the overpass bridges or flyovers means that the traffic conflicts at peak hours between motorists on the highway and those intersecting the highway at the roundabouts, is still frustratingly present. Long lines of rush hour traffic still backup at every roundabout every morning and afternoon.

What Minister Boyce seems ignorant of is, that except for those taking Highway 1 or Highway 7 into or out of Bridgetown, everyone from every parish in Barbados has to cross the ABC Highway, whether in a car, bus or ZR or on a motorbike or bicycle.

Another problem is the new left-turn lanes merging into the traffic that has already exited the roundabouts. Poor design is encouraging these motorists to force their way into traffic instead of adhering to the golden rule of always giving way to traffic on their right. This is a prescription for road rage. But worse by far than anything else in the redesign of the Highway - is the “deathtrap-in-waiting,” at the bottom of what has become known as BET Hill.

After navigating a chicane at the bottom of the Hill, the unsuspecting motorist then has to be on the look out for the possibility of vehicles encroaching on his lane from either side. Even the most hair-raising video games are better designed than this section of the highway. We hope and pray that motorists will continue to use good judgment and restraint in this section until a better design option can be implemented.

Oh - and how long will it be before the public is given advice on how to use the Highway correctly.

The people are waiting.
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