Dusty roads and traffic snarls
View(s):Last week, with no intimation to residents in a Colombo suburb, workers cut a drain on one side of the road after closing it and began laying new water pipes.
Thereafter the road was on-and-off opened for a few hours per day. Then one day, the workers cut a drain across preventing access to a by-road – again without any intimation to residents living down that lane. Residents were forced to park their vehicles elsewhere and walk home and remove their cars several hours later!
A few months back, residents down Duplication Road and Galle Road woke up to their road being dug up. Ever since then it has been a nightmare for motorists using Duplication Road and the sections of Galle Road where both sides have been cut with drains for road work. A Business Times story last week said this work will continue for another 10 months which means several months of traffic chaos.
Apart from the inconvenience, shouldn’t the authorities have given prior notice to residents and motorists of such work, many months ahead? Duplication Road has turned into a traffic snarl during most times of the day amidst the road works.
To add insult to injury, one official is quoted in our report as saying that some by-lanes have been identified as ‘no-parking’ “in a bid to ensure a smooth flow of traffic from the main roads to use as a corridor to other roads”, the report said. So where do motorists park? Even now most sections of Duplication Road are closed for parking and motorists generally use a by-lane for this purpose. Now with the traffic chaos and restricted parking on Duplication Road, other connecting roads have also become restricted parking zones.
Little wonder then that the cost was estimated at Rs 32 billion per annum in 2009 from financial and man-hour loss due to traffic congestion due to no proper traffic plan in the Greater Colombo area. “The main reason for congestion was poor city planning, inappropriate public transport facilities and insufficient traffic system, which leads to waste of time, fuel and wear and tear of vehicles,” University of Moratuwa Civil Engineering and transport expert Professor Amal S. Kumarage was quoted in an interview with Business Times last year.
A few days ago, there was an announcement of new rules at the Pittala (Dharmapala Mawatha) junction where motorists travelling to Slave Island (from the direction of Flower Road) would be allowed to proceed straight across to Sir James Peiris Mawatha (crossing Dharmapala Mawatha). Earlier to get to Slave Island, motorists (from Flower Road) turned right at Dharmapala Mawatha.
The new route should have been allowed at the time Dharmapala Mawatha was designated one-way (proceeding from Kollupitiya) for the simple reason that when vehicles turn into Dharmapala Mawatha from Flower Road, entry from other roads at Pittala junction into Dharmapala Mawatha is stopped. Thus vehicles could anyway have proceeded to Slave Island without blocking any traffic at that point! After many years and increasing traffic congestion, police have suddenly woken up to an old reality.
As evident over and over again, state agencies involved in road works – telecommunication, water, sewerage and road or pavement construction – do not coordinate their work and minimise the inconvenience to residents, pedestrians and motorists. For many days, drains were cut on Duplication Road but there were no workers implying that one agency had completed the work for another to take over. There are insufficient notices informing of such construction while the area is clouded with dust on one of the busiest roads during the day.
Last year, a panel discussion organised by the Sunday Times Business Club revealed how poor city planning of roads and the misconception that more roads would ease traffic, was leading to serious issues in traffic management in the city.
“More roads mean more vehicles. It would take longer to reach point A to point B,” one expert said. It was also pointed out that there was hardly any study of traffic changes like the Duplication road one way and the Galle road (Bambalapitiya-Kollupitiya) one way flows. “There is no study before or after to analysis the weaknesses and rectify any faults,” Prof. Kumarage was quoted as saying. He said the loss to the economy is Rs. 40 billion a year, wasted on fuel and other issues owing to poor road and traffic management in the country.
The average speed of traffic in the Western Province is said to be 22 km per hour while in Colombo it is around half that. With the disruptive road works in the city with no proper notice to the public, the speed of travel is slowing down further and with that the cost to the economy rises through loss of man-hours, productivity and increased fuel use.
The haphazard road works in the capital is a reflection of the lack of governance and disrespect of Sri Lankan citizens.