Hunter Street rehabilitation works nearing completion
Minister of Public Works, Hon. Bishop Juan Edghill says rehabilitation works at Hunter Street, Alexander Village are expected to be completed soon.
The Minister made this statement during a site visit on Tuesday.
“We are having the light literally at the end of the tunnel with much improvements to what we originally wanted to do. Except for the delays in getting asphalt, the asphalting and the paving would have been completed,” he said.
Since Minister Edghill’s previous visit in March, new culverts have been built to ensure adequate drainage in the area.
“Then we have also been able to find a solution that while we are waiting on the completion of the four-lane Sherriff-Mandela [road], the current contractor could get on beyond the original Hunter Street area to give a smooth connection because building a road and people can’t connect to what is there is useless,” he said.
The Ministry is also examining the possibility of converting the street into a three-lane thoroughfare. Minister Edghill said from his observation, and after consultations with the contractor and engineers, the new road would have enough width to consider this option. This would further help to ease the traffic congestion on the East Bank roadway.
“That is something my engineers are going to look at today. Hunter Street, not conclusively, but could possibly move from being a two-lane road into being a three-lane road, which would mean at the peak hours of the traffic coming in the morning, you can get two lanes coming in and one lane going out.
At the peak hours in the afternoon, when the traffic is going out, you could get two lanes going out and one lane coming in. That would be explored today. We will have a decision by this afternoon,” he said.
Minister Edghill said much consideration was given to ensuring a reduction in travelling time during the plans for road upgrades.
“People must get home and get to work relaxed, not spending hours in traffic so we have made adjustment with the opening and closing hours of the Demerara Harbour Bridge to ensure that the afternoon traffic is minimised.
Getting this main artery fixed to get traffic moving is very important and we can’t wait to get the Sherriff-Mandela completed also,” he relayed. The Hunter Street project is being done by Vieira 66 Logistics. The initial $86.6 million contract was awarded to Surrey Paving and Ideal Engineering in May 2019 and was scheduled to conclude in December 2019. However, the contract was terminated after the contractor received several extensions, but no work was done.
