To beat East Coast traffic congestion, gov’t expanding roadways

Amid the increase in traffic flowing into Georgetown daily, the government has decided to expand the roadway from Conversation Tree to Dennis Street and is mulling other expansions of road networks in the future.

This is according to Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who engaged residents from the communities surrounding the planned road expansion on Monday.

The Vice President explained that the existing road network does not adequately support the volume of traffic. As such, commuters are confronted by lengthy travel times daily.

For commuters travelling from the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) into the capital city, he noted that there is a bottleneck at the Russian Embassy turn in Kitty. At that location, the four-land ECD highway converges into just two lanes.

Because of that, Jagdeo posited that the government has to find “additional detours” to get into the city.

“We don’t have any room for expansion there,” he acknowledged.

As such, the Conversation Tree to Dennis Street route has been identified as a solution to the traffic congestion woes. Two additional lanes- one on each side would be added to the existing double-lane road.

A boulevard for walking and recreation would be created in the middle, the Vice President noted.

“We believe that this infrastructure here and upgrading the UG road maybe into a four-lane road will help to diffuse some of the traffic through these communities without changing the community,” Dr. Jagdeo said.

He later expanded on the potential expansion of the University of Guyana (UG) road, stating that it is among other projects that could be pursued to eliminate the traffic congestion at the Russian embassy turn.

“The country is growing fast, we have more people getting wealthier.

“We have more people with a number of vehicles in their families and we have major congestion on our highways,” Jagdeo said, underscoring the need to pursue these projects.

At Monday’s meeting, residents emphasised the need for adequate traffic signs and street lights to accompany the road expansion works. Public Works Minister Juan Edghill said that these are all features that will be included in the new development.

Edghill also noted that contracts will be awarded for the rehabilitation and development of several of the smaller streets connected to that Conversation Tree to Dennis street highway.