Plan to destroy Illegal roads to highways

Minister of Works and Infrastructure Emmanuel George says illegal access roads along T&T’s highways will soon be destroyed as they are posing a danger to motorists. George said he has instructed Director of Highways Roger Ganesh to identify those roads and immediately take steps to remove them. He was speaking at the opening ceremony of the refurbished Antilles Trace, San Francique, on Wednesday. 

He added: “There is a law that prohibits illegal access onto the highway. On my way here I noticed several illegal accesses onto the highway and I called the director of highways and told him that he has to come and see them and we have to take steps to remove them immediately. “They are really dangerous and people don’t seem to really appreciate the danger because all they want is the shortest way from their highway to their homes.

“They prefer to make those direct connections, maybe from the highway to their business places, but it really is a danger to other road-users and we need to aggressively pursue their removal.” He said backhoes would be assigned to excavate the dirt that people used to fill the drains and depressions along the highways.

Even as he travelled along the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway George said he noticed that many of the cable guards along the highway were being destroyed by motorists. He said that was causing a delay by contractors who were reinforcing the entire length of the highway with cables to cushion accidents.

George also announced that Cabinet approved the construction of the San Fernando to Princes Town Highway. He said although Government wanted to start the project before the 2015 general election, funding is yet to be obtained and plans were being drafted. He added: “We are still doing design works and we still have to get some money. Once we get the money, we want to be able to award those contracts shortly after. 

“The plan is to do it before 2015 but many things have to be done before the contract is awarded.” He said works on the $800 million interchange at Grand Bazaar was also expected to be completed by next year.