Brinckerhoff second time around?

THE EDITOR: Works Minister Franklyn Khan recently announced that the US firm of Parsons Brinckerhoff has been contracted to prepare a mass transit plan to ease the horrible traffic crush that’s  destroying surface communication and productivity, and destabilising the psyche and the driving habits of thousands.

Now wait a minute, didn’t I hear that name before? Subject to correction, I believe a US firm named Parker, Parsons Brinckerhoff was hired by an earlier PNM government some 30 years ago to do a comprehensive traffic study, and come up with ideas for making traffic flow better in the future, ie 2000 and beyond. Are the two firms the same? Was a report ever completed and submitted by the first contractor? If yes, when? How long did it take to prepare? What was the cost of the report?

What were the principal recommendations? Were they carried out? Perhaps one of your reporters can look into these matters if only to ensure that our governments are not going around in circles, and getting nowhere very fast. The Minister also said recently that ‘the grater challenge is how we deal with the urban transportation sector (where) we’re constrained by space and the solutions therein will very likely be expensive.” This is not entirely accurate, for while overpasses and widenings will add to the budget, intelligent and virtually cost-free revised usage of existing roadways will go a long way to easing congestion, and expediting flows which currently are neither intelligently organised nor effectively operated. I refer here to the long mooted converting of Ariapita Avenue, and Western Main Road/Tragarete Road into one-way thoroughfares, with changes in flows along Richmond Street, Edward Street, Colville Street, and Maraval Road for greater volume and movement into and out of the city’s centre.

Total cost would be emplacement of signs, the printing of official notices, and graphic campaigns explaining the new systems. These would definitely not run into elevated costs, yet no action is being taken despite the fact that jefes in the Ministry of Works have agreed with me on this system of more efficient use of streets and roads in Port-of-Spain. What is lacking is the will to succeed and get things done. As a result, the Ministry of Works runs the very real risk of being labelled cowardly and managerial incompetents for failing to see and act on glaring truths for fear of making an error. This is sure to torpedo a major part of the 2020 vision, and keep us in the bondage of the Third World’s Third World.

LLOYD CARTAR
Westmoorings