[UPDATED] WASA repairs in Cocorite cause gridlock traffic

Repairs to a ruptured 16-inch water pipeline along the Western Main Road in Cocorite on Thursday left hundreds of drivers and commuters heading east into Port of Spain and west into Diego Martin and other areas frustrated.

For hours, people endured gridlock traffic as workers from the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) worked to get the line repaired near the Peake’s gas station on the west-bound lane.

The work, which started on Wednesday, was hampered by the presence of live high-voltage underground electrical lines.

In its update at 6.16 pm on Thursday, WASA said the repairs were completed and the water supply was restored at 5 pm. The authority said it may take up to 24 hours for the system to pressurise for the water supply to normalise to some affected areas.

Rehabilitation work on the roadway was expected to be completed by 8 pm.

At the handing over of new police vehicles at VMCOTT in Port of Spain, Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan said there was some miscommunication which contributed to the traffic.

He said when the work started, the ministry was not informed of its magnitude, and when that was known the communication department stepped in.

“Going forward, we have to communicate in a clearer fashion so that the population could understand. At the end of the day we do have aging infrastructure in Trinidad and it is no fault of WASA that these lines are aged.”

He said it was unfortunate that people had to be sitting in traffic for hours, but work on the line was an emergency and not a pre-planned repair.

“The only thing we should have done better is the communication part of it to inform the citizens in that part of the country that this is taking place.”