The Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) is advising the public that it will be conducting emergency excavation and repair work along Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain, over this weekend.

As a result, T&TEC said there will be an interruption in the flow of traffic along the Eastbound lane (in the vicinity of SWWTU) from 10:00 PM on Friday (16th September 2022) to 12:00 PM on Saturday (17th September 2022. These works are necessary to repair a fault on its 33,000 volts underground cable.

The Commission apologizes for any inconvenience caused by these repair works and urges motorists to proceed with caution and to follow the instructions of Police on-site. “We thank all affected residents, businesses, motorists and the general public for their co-operation.”

The Ministry of Works and Transport is advising the public that there will be a temporary traffic disruption at LP # 1999A/96Km mark along the Southern Main Road in Chatham. The disruption will take place from Wednesday 7th September 2022 to Tuesday 13th September 2022 between the hours of 9:00 PM to 4:00 AM. This has become necessary to facilitate the relocation of WASA's 8-inch pipeline and the installation of additional shoring to maintain the roadway.

Considering the above, motorists are advised to comply with the following:

• Proceed with caution and observe all directional signs and barriers.
• Motorists should drive at a reduced speed on approaching the work zone.
• Be aware of heavy equipment entering and exiting the site.
• Comply with instructions from Police Officers on-site to facilitate a safe and orderly flow of traffic.

The Ministry says it regrets any inconvenience caused and thanks the public for its continued co-operation. For further information, please visit the Ministry's website at www.mowt.gov.tt or call the PURE Unit at 638-2350, 638-2256 or 675-4052.

A “ticking time bomb” is how many residents described the alarming situation in Chatham on Monday (5th September 2022) when they staged a protest to highlight their growing concerns. A ma­jor land­slip is not on­ly the largest of over a dozen along the South­ern Main Road, but one of sev­er­al is­sues facing res­i­dents of Chatham and en­vi­rons. Ero­sion along both sides of the road­way at the 96-Kilo­me­tre mark is al­so a se­ri­ous cause for con­cern.

The ma­jor fear of many residents right now is that they may soon be dis­con­nect­ed from the rest of the coun­try if weath­er con­di­tions wors­en. There have also been delays in receiving gasoline supplies due to the state of the main roadway into Chatham.

Speaking with Guardian Media, taxi dri­ver Ar­shad Ali said the land­slip has been de­te­ri­o­rat­ing at an alarm­ing rate. “We don’t know if we could make it, if our ve­hi­cles could go down in there, you can see the cracks and it’s not one side, it’s both sides of the road col­laps­ing,” he said.

Meanwhile, Granville res­i­dent Sunil Sookram said nu­mer­ous calls for the rel­e­vant Min­is­ters to pay ur­gent at­ten­tion to the col­laps­ing road­way have been futile. “The Prime Min­is­ter is a Ge­ol­o­gist, the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance is an En­gi­neer and they take the two sense to­geth­er and they give Ro­han Sinanan it, which is non­sense. They not do­ing noth­ing for no­body in Trinidad, watch the con­di­tion of the road,” he said.

The land­slide has im­pact­ed the in­tegri­ty of the sin­gle-lane road­way to the point where heavy ve­hi­cles no longer risk pass­ing. As a re­sult, thou­sands of res­i­dents be­yond Chatham are with­out ac­cess to cer­tain es­sen­tial items.

Fish ven­dor Kendel Mood­ie said mem­bers of the fish­er­folk com­mu­ni­ty were among the hard­est af­fect­ed, as get­ting gaso­line is now a chal­lenge.

“Look at the dis­tress they putting us through right now. We have to leave Ce­dros and go Point [Fortin] and even Erin, La Brea all about to full gas to try and fa­cil­i­tate the fish­er­men be­cause they out­side fish­ing and we [have to] get fu­el for them. It’s a cost­ly thing be­cause we have to full diesel in our van at the same time...then look at the road con­di­tions,” he said.

Ce­dros Coun­cil­lor Shankar Teelucks­ingh said while sev­er­al at­tempts have been made to fix the now wors­en­ing land­slide, noth­ing has worked. He said it was on­ly a mat­ter of time be­fore the res­i­dents’ fears are re­alized. “Se­ri­ous ques­tions we ask­ing from the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, the Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties and the Min­is­ter of Works, let them come and give res­i­dents the as­sur­ance that it is safe to tra­verse so when some­thing goes wrong or a fa­tal­i­ty should hap­pen, God for­bid, that we know the course of ac­tion to be tak­en against them,” he said.

Councillor Teelucksingh also confirmed that the road conditions are affecting the supply of gasoline to Chatham. All three (3) gas stations in the area are now without a fuel supply, which is affecting residents, teachers and fishermen.

Point Fortin MP, Kennedy Richards Jr., ex­plained that the nec­es­sary works on al­ter­na­tive routes in and out of the area will take place to en­sure res­i­dents are not cut off. He added that weath­er con­di­tions and oth­er vari­ables de­layed works but the con­trac­tor tasked with ad­dress­ing the road­way at the site in Chatham is set to re­sume works. “The lat­est de­vel­op­ment that I have is that WASA has com­plet­ed its en­gi­neer­ing de­sign and as­sess­ment and they are now about to re­sume in terms of work­ing with the con­trac­tor to move the line,” he said.

​[Source: T&T Guardian]

The Ministry of Works and Transport is advising the public that there will be a temporary traffic disruption along the Rienzi Kirton Highway and the Lady Hailes Avenue in the vicinity of the Rienzi Kirton Pedestrian Overpass, San Fernando, from Monday 5th September 2022 to Saturday 10th September 2022, between the hours of 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. This has become necessary to facilitate road rehabilitation works.

Considering the above, motorists are advised to comply with the following:

• Proceed with caution and observe all directional signs and barriers.
• Comply with instructions from Police Officers on-site to facilitate a safe and orderly flow of traffic.
• Be aware of heavy equipment entering and exiting the site.
• Drive with caution on all milled (possibly uneven) surfaces.
  
• ​Drive at a reduced speed on approaching the work zone.

The Ministry says it regrets any inconvenience caused and thanks the public for its continued co-operation. For further information, please visit the Ministry's website at www.mowt.gov.tt or call the PURE Unit at 638-2350, 638-2256 or 675-4052.

The Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government (MoRDLG) is advising motorists to proceed with caution to avoid damage or injury in the vicinity of a road impairment on the Western Main Road, St. James.
​
In an update at 7:40 PM tonight (Tuesday 23rd August 2022), the Ministry said that Officials from the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), Municipal Police, Ministry Officers as well as representatives from other agencies are on-site, assessing and addressing repairs.

The Ministry of Works and Transport (MOWT) is informing the public of ongoing slope stabilization works in the vicinity of LP #1999A, 96 Km mark along the Southern Main Road, Chatham.

The Ministry said the scope of this project is to stabilize both failed slopes (Northern and Southern sides) by the construction of two (2) reinforced concrete retaining walls on piles. The Southern wall will be constructed first, as this will facilitate the construction of a utility corridor (wide concrete channel) for the placement of water-mains. Once the Southern wall and the utility corridor is completed, the MOWT and the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) would co-ordinate efforts to relocate the water-mains from the Northern side to the Southern side of the roadway. Thereafter, the Northern wall will be constructed and the full width of the road restored to allow for the normal flow of traffic.

The Ministry notes that after installation of shoring (Southern side), construction work on the Southern side of the landslip was expected to commence on Tuesday 2nd August 2022. However, due to the inclement weather over the last few weeks, additional movement along the roadway and downslope was observed. “This situation has made it difficult for the contractor to proceed with on-going works,” the Ministry said.

​Works are scheduled to commence from today (Monday 22nd August 2022) with a completion date of November 2022. The MOWT, WASA and project contractor will continue to work together to maintain vehicular access and a schedule for the supply of water to the community.

Considering the above, motorists are advised to comply with the following:

• Proceed with caution and observe all directional signs and barriers.
• Comply with instructions from Police Officers on-site to facilitate a safe and orderly flow of traffic.
• Be aware of heavy equipment entering and exiting the site.
• Drive with caution on all milled (possibly uneven) surfaces.
• Drive at a reduced speed on approaching the work zone.

The Ministry said it regrets any inconvenience caused and thanks the public for its continued co-operation. For further information, please visit the Ministry's website at www.mowt.gov.tt or call the PURE Unit at 638-2350, 638-2256 or 675-4052.