President Irfaan Ali yesterday, announced the construction of a new four-lane highway from Crane, on the West Coast of Demerara, to Schoonord, on the West Bank.
The new highway is expected to be 3.5 miles long and will seek to alleviate the daily traffic congestion from Vreed-en-Hoop to the Demerara Harbour Bridge at Meer Zorgen, WBD.
“Yesterday, the ministers were [like] you know, we have the plan to build a new highway to Parika but because of the speed of development in the region, we now have to go with a stopgap. You have to build an alternative highway four-lane highway from Crane to Schoonord because that is where you have huge traffic backup now.
“…And yesterday we went to look at that alignment that is just about three and a half miles long to have a diversion from Crane coming all the way to the West Bank as an initial phase,” the president said during his address at the commissioning of a new dredge at GAICO wharf.
Ali said that the new alternative road is on par with the developmental plans for the region.
Shortly after taking office in 2020, Ali began scouting a location for a four-lane highway from the new Demerara Harbour Bridge’s proposed location to Parika, East Bank Essequibo. At that time the bridge was being proposed to land at Canal No.1 Polder but now that location has been reverted to Meer Zorgen where the DBH currently lands on the west side.
Preparatory works have already commenced for the construction of the new road. A meeting was held with the private landowners whose farms would be disrupted. They are expected to receive compensation.
