Traffic chaos led to pause on installation of Arch on East Coast; to resume tonight

Contractors were today (Thursday, May 11, 2017) forced to stop the installation of an Arch at the Eastern entrance to Georgetown, after traffic stalled for hours.

The Arch which is being installed at Cummingslodge on the East Coast Demerara caused many persons to be stuck in traffic for hours since the road was closed at 9 am to facilitate the works. Additionally, the advisory was only released yesterday evening (Wednesday, May 10, 2017), therefore not affording persons the time to plan ahead.

The advisory last evening noted that the Highway between UG Access Road and Ogle Access Road will be closed to vehicular traffic on Thursday, May 11 and Friday, May 12 between the hours of 08:00 hrs and 21:00 hrs to facilitate the installation of the arch.

Following many complaints from commuters after lunch today, (Thursday, May 11, 2017), a statement from the Department of Public Information noted that “all work on the installation of the arch has been stopped and will resume tonight.”

It further explained that the local company, Ansa Mcal which is funding the arch disclosed that unfortunately, the fabricator was late in delivering the materials, as the arch was to have been installed last weekend.

The company has an event on Saturday, May 13th and is keen to have the arch installed for the event.

The Government of Guyana said it regrets the inconvenience caused and assures that every effort will be made to minimise the disruptions to traffic this evening.

The Ministry of Public Infrastructure disclosed that the road will be closed again at 18:00hrs to complete the works. It noted that this was considered prior to the commencement of the project, however, there was an issue with safety for motorists and the contractors.