Pothole-riddled main street blamed for Lucea’s traffic congestion
Published:Tuesday | June 14, 2022 | 12:09 AMBryan Miller/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
TRAVERSING THE main street in the Hanover capital of Lucea should take less than two minutes under normal circumstances. However, on any given day, it will take motorists up to half an hour, and sometimes more, to travel the 400-metre stretch of roadway.
Superintendent of Police in charge of the Hanover Division, Sharon Beeput, has come up with a solution to the traffic congestion. She suggested that repairing the abundance of potholes on the main road leading through the town; and second, controlling the daily delivery of goods taking place at supermarkets lining the western end of that thoroughfare can ease vehicular flow..
During the 2021 festive season, the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC), in collaboration with the National Works Agency (NWA) and the police, implemented a dual driveway along the Willie Delisser Boulevard, which helped in alleviating the traffic flow at the western end of the main street in Lucea. However, as soon as schools reopened in January, that decision became impractical and was abandoned.
At a recent HMC meeting, Beeput put forward her idea that if the roadway leading into the town was repaired, then there would be a smoother flow of traffic.
“I was coming along a short while ago on that stretch along the Lucea main road ... . The potholes, it makes us look bad, as if the police are not working, when we are indeed working,” she stated.
“We need to fix those potholes, because the [traffic] lines take you back all the way, sometimes to Johnson Town (one mile away), from the eastern end of Main Street, and it’s just because of the potholes that are there (on Main Street),” she stated.
EXECUTE THE WORK
Beeput further noted that it is her greatest hope that whichever agency is responsible for fixing the potholes, it should execute the work.
“The next thing is delivery days. I am asking if you (at the HMC) can assist us with a sign to be erected along the roadway, to specify delivery times,” she stated, arguing that a regulated delivery schedule for businesses along the narrow main street of the capital town will assist greatly in minimising the traffic congestion.
Beeput noted that whereas her proposals will not totally get rid of Lucea’s traffic congestion, they will assist in cutting down on the time it takes to traverse the town.
Several recommendations have been put forward to solve the traffic congestion nightmare on that thoroughfare daily, with one coming from none other than Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister (West), Homer Davis, for a bypass road to be constructed for that town, so that only vehicles having a necessity to go through Lucea would traverse that roadway.
Mayor of Lucea Sheridan Samuels pointed out that whereas the main street in the town is the responsibility of the NWA to maintain, he will be doing everything possible to get rid of some of the headaches brought on by the multiplicity of potholes. He said that discussions have also been held with business owners concerning the matter of scheduled delivery times, adding that such a plan will be implemented soon.
“We will be spending HMC money to do things that the NWA is supposed to do. We are not complaining, all we are doing is to mention it, so that they (NWA) will understand that we have been doing a lot of things that they are supposed to,” Samuels stated, with regard to fixing the potholes.
“It is the worst I have ever seen it – that piece of road from Keep Left coming into the town. This is worse than the garbage collection situation that we are facing in the parish right now; it is a disgrace,” he argued.