The first full day of traffic changes implemented for the construction of the Curepe Interchange saw massive traffic pileups along the Southern Main Road.
Vehicles heading south along the main road were caught in bottlenecks from the Valsayn intersection shortly before noon.
"(It's) Terrible, terrible, before this ramp here we never used to have this traffic congestion. Coming out of Curepe you used to have four lanes to exit now you only have one lane to exit. The four lanes used to be one going, two going straight and one going right. We don't have that. Everybody going in one direction so the traffic is terrible," said a Maxi Taxi driver, who only gave his name as Gerry.
"It hard for us as maxi drivers and taxi drivers would have the same concern," he said.
President of the Route 3 Maxi Taxi Association Julien St George said the adjustment was particularly hard on the maxi drivers, as they had no other exit which would keep them on their route.
"What happen is that the accommodation that they made headed south, it's a little bit too narrow to accommodate the load, the bulk of the traffic. When you headed north, I see that they making a merge lane for vehicles that heading west, that apparently will (allow vehicles) to merge and that will take away a lot of traffic from vehicles that crossing the Churchill Roosevelt heading north but heading south it a little bit tight," said St George, "We having traffic starting from as far as Knowles Street straight down to the Churchill Roosevelt. We accustomed to having traffic on that stretch but not to that extent."
The drivers added the elongated period of traffic was also a concern.
"It having traffic on hours that didn't usually (have traffic). We wasn't accustomed to having traffic at (those) hours. Usually, in the morning period, traffic would have died down say 9 o'clock and thing. Right now the traffic running straight up to half-past 11," said St George who said there was a similar recurrence of the traffic after lunch.
Chaguanas and San Fernando Taxi drivers also complained about the backup.
St. George explained that the three maxi taxi associations had met with the Ministry of Works and Transport officials before to discuss the changes and a suggestion was made that the taxi drivers be allowed temporary access to the bus route from Farm Road to Mt Hope Intersection.
St. George said while that would reduce the number of vehicles on the Southern Main Road, the maxi drivers were still at the mercy of changes.
"They have a way out, but we don't have a way out," said St. George, who called for a similar merge lane to be introduced for vehicles headed south to alleviate the backup.
The traffic changes came into effect at 7 pm on Monday.