Partial opening of new southbound highway lane on February 17

A segment of the long-awaited completion of road-widening work along the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway in Chaguanas will open for use, six months after the entire project was supposed to be done.

An advertisement in Newsday on February 15 said the southbound lanes from the Brentwood acceleration lane to the Chase Village overpass will be opened on February 17.

The opening of the road will result in new traffic flow arrangements, the notice said.

It said there was now a 100-metre transition zone near the Brentwood acceleration lane, which will be demarcated, as the highway goes from two lanes to three. It said these three lanes will be maintained for the next two kilometres along the southbound lanes, ending about 400 metres before the Chase Village overpass.

The ministry urged drivers to proceed with caution and observe all directional signs and traffic control devices.

The $65 million project to widen the highway between the Chaguanas overpass and Chase Village overpass was initially carded for completion in August 2024.

Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan said the deadline was not met after some materials used by one contractor, Junior Sammy Contractors Ltd, did not meet quality standards.

Sinanan said it would have been completed by the end of the year once the weather permitted. This new deadline was not met.

Speaking in parliament earlier this month, Sinanan said work was further delayed by inclement weather in December. This, he said, was compounded by the scheduling challenges as work had to be done around rush-hour traffic.

He said the new deadline to open the project was at the end of March.

While the road, which is the major artery for traffic between north and south Trinidad, remained open throughout the project, it left thousands of drivers in near stand-still traffic daily.

Many reported their commute times being almost doubled at one point.

Night work was paused in late October after commuters feared gridlock traffic owing to several events happening in the area simultaneously — each enough to cause significant traffic on their own.

These were month-end shopping, the annual Divali Nagar and the Suarez Brothers' Circus in Chaguanas.