A major milestone in the troubled Solomon Hochoy Highway Extension Project will be reached today with the opening of segments from Mon Desir to La Brea and Vance River to the Dunlop Roundabout.
This is expected to reduce the commute between San Fernando and Point Fortin to 20 minutes—a key development in long-promised improvements to this country’s road network.
It is unfortunate, however, that getting to this point in the upgrade of the country’s major north-south highway had to come at such a heavy cost to taxpayers, not only in terms of the billions of dollars spent to date, but the numerous delays and controversies that have dogged the project.
In addition to the political dramas between the two governments that presided over different stages of the highway construction, there have been numerous delays, cost overruns, lawsuits, protests and even a hunger strike.
None of this has done justice to the memory of Sir Solomon Hochoy, T&T’s first Governor General, for whom the highway was named.
Also, in terms of taking credit for significant infrastructural development, neither the People’s National Movement (PNM), nor the People’s Partnership, should expect kudos for a job well done from a nation that has endured bacchanals of all kinds for the better part of the 13 years it has taken to get to this point.
This was a project that got underway during the then Patrick Manning PNM administration with the promise of significant reductions in travel time between San Fernando and Point Fortin and an end to perennial flooding at Mosquito Creek, among other improvements.
Easier access to Point Fortin and its industrial activity, particularly in the oil and gas sector, had been a development objective for decades, along with brighter prospects for major towns on that southern route, including Debe, Penal, Siparia and Fyzabad.
However, mismanagement has plagued every stage of the project. Brazilian firm Construtora OAS, SA was awarded the TT$5.2 billion contract in July 2011. It was the single largest contract ever awarded by T&T.
By early 2015, OAS Construtora was in turmoil, filed a petition for judicial reorganisation in Brazil seeking bankruptcy protection and, within a year, had stopped all work on the highway and left T&T.
In addition to that setback, which has resulted in years of expensive litigation between the Government and OAS, there were numerous controversies, in and out of court, when the Highway Reroute Movement led by Dr Wayne Kublalsingh tried to block the Debe to Mon Desir section of the highway. This included Dr Kublalsingh’s dramatic, well-publicised hunger strike outside the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair.
The COVID-19 pandemic and occasional bouts of inclement weather, which also caused delays in the project’s progress, pale in comparison to these major events linked to the highway construction that dominated national attention for weeks at a time.
Hopefully, with the finish line finally in sight, the unpleasant events involved in developing a smooth, fast route from San Fernando to Point Fortin are now firmly in the rearview mirror, never to be repeated.
From now on, the aim should be to complete the major road improvement projects currently in progress, including the much-needed extension of the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway to Sangre Grande, on time, within cost and without controversies.