Traffic flows at Mosquito Creek

CARLA BRIDGLAL

Commuters can now safely pass along Mosquito Creek after the National Infrastructural Development Company (NIDCO) completed emergency work on Sunday morning.

Heavy rains and high tides combined to cause massive flooding over the last two days along Mosquito Creek, a two-mile long stretch of road sandwiched between the Gulf of Paria and the Oropouche Swamp. On Saturday afternoon, police monitoring the situation rerouted traffic after water levels rose to dangerously high levels, unsafe or all but the highest vehicles to cross.

As of yesterday morning, NIDCO said its overnight emergency works, including pumping and de-watering activities, had left the road free of floodwater and open to traffic, the agency said in a release. NIDCO still advised motorists to travel carefully, given the wet conditions on the roadway.

On Saturday, Works & Transport Minister, Rohan Sinanan, said that an extra pump would be installed to aid with drainage. Mosquito Creek has long been a headache for the thousands of commuters travelling to and from the south western peninsula.

It was supposed to be one of the main routes slated for development on along the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway extension. Work had been halted after the change in government in 2015, but has since resumed on the South Trunk Road, at the northern and southern ends of Mosquito Creek, not the creek itself.

Sinanan said the tenders for the completion of roadworks on the middle portion of Mosquito Creek are currently being evaluated and he expected a contract to be awarded at by next month.

Once the highway and other roadworks are completed, Sinanan noted, then the flooding problem should be alleviated, since the new portion of the highway will be significantly higher than the current level.