Infrastructure Ministry to implement road safety campaign
GINA, GUYANA, Tuesday, September 13, 2016
The Ministry of Public Infrastructure, will shortly be initiating a road safety public media campaign in a further effort to reduce road accidents.
Contractors overlaying the West Coast road
Teachers, police and students from Vreed-en-Hoop to Hydronie, West Coast Demerara, Region Three had benefitted from road safety training under the West Coast Demerara Road Improvement project. Road safety is a major component of the US$46.8M project that is ongoing.
The Ministry’s Senior Traffic and Safety Engineer, Kester Hinds told the Government Information Agency (GINA) today, that the campaign was decided on because of the increase in road fatalities in recent times. “We have recognised there has been an increase in accidents on our roads. This weekend alone (last weekend) we had a few accidents and so we’re looking to sensitise persons on proper use of the road,” Hinds explained.
Ongoing road works on the West Coast Road
The engineer pointed out that the public awareness campaign which was intended for the West Coast Demerara region will explore other measures of sensitisation to include the general public, and will utilise newspapers, television, and the internet. “The campaign when it was initiated was conceptualised to target drinking and driving so those messages will also be included in the campaign,” Hinds pointed out.
The campaign is expected to be launched before year end and will utilise excess funds from the West Coast Road Improvement project.
Contractors working on the sidewalk for the West Coast road
Meanwhile, the road project is 40 percent completed to date. Hinds explained that currently the contractors are constructing concrete drains and sidewalks, repairing culverts, overlaying the existing surface, marking the road, and installing street lights and traffic signs among others.
“All of those are items that are part of the contract. Of course many of them are phased because you can’t mark the road until it’s completed. There are also some sections where we are moving utilities so we are working on all these items, some of them in a simultaneous manner,” Hinds explained.
The project which began in January 2015 will cover a length of 30.7 kilometers of the West Coast road, Region Three and has a completion date of December 2017.
The project is funded by the Government, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) among others.