Pedestrians who want to cross the highway outside West Mall have to choose between two dangers: a rusting walkover or rushing traffic.Some people choose to bypass the walkover, running across the highway as cars speed east and west.A T&T Guardian team that visited the walkover yesterday found metal bars rusted almost all the way through and rotten posts which are no longer attached to the floor of the walkover or the canopy.
Manager of the Programme for Upgrading Roads Efficiency (PURE) Hayden Phillip said while PURE had installed the walkovers, the upkeep was the responsibility of the Director of Highways, Roger Ganesh.Phillip said the walkover near The Falls at West Mall as well as the Powder Magazine Phase 2 walkover, less than 300 metres away, were relatively new."I don't understand how it could have that much damage," he said.
The Powder Magazine walkover is not used by pedestrians, who feel it is quicker and easier to run across the highway.The lifts, which were installed in August 2010 by then Minister of Works Jack Warner, have not worked for over two years. Ganesh did not return several phone calls and messages left with his assistant yesterday.In a telephone interview, Diego Martin Central MP Amery Browne said the Ministry of Works was not doing its work properly.
He said if it were, the walkovers in the West would be in better condition and work would have started on other walkovers.Browne, who described the opening of the lifts at Powder Magazine as "a public-relations event," said they had not worked since as far back as 2010.He said he consistently received complaints from residents but nothing had been done.
"The walkover has become mossy and slippery and hazardous to any citizens wishing to cross," he said."Citizens who need to cross but cannot manage to climb the stairs have to resort to making their way across the busy highway."
