It's a nightmare

By Tharuka Dissanaike

Work on the new Baseline Road should have ended last November. But now, five months later, the project looks nowhere near completion. The new date for the completion of the project, we learn, is December this year. But there are no guarantees that the road will be ready for traffic even then.

Why? What delays our infrastructure projects so much?

When the Baseline Road development project began, after much delay, in 1996, it promised to have a super six-lane highway in two years. Motorists who used the road constantly dreaded the construction phase but were happy to see that the narrow, badly- maintained road was at last to be developed into a proper highway with fly-overs at the railway crossings. They were willing to go through the inconvenience of negotiating a road under construction for a better road in two years.

But unfortunately that is not to be.

Driving on Baseline road is a nightmare. On one hand there are the earthmoving, bull-dozers obstructing the already unruly traffic, and dust from the construction affecting visibility. One has to also steer clear of trenches, pits and huge potholes on the sides and middle of the road. On top of all this there are the messed-up junctions made worse by indisciplined motorists. Then there is the crawling traffic weaving through workmen and a horrible road surface due to the construction work.

"I use Baseline road every morning," S. Dharmarathne, a businessman working in Borella said. "It's the easiest way to work. But the drive is terrible. There's traffic from all sides, because the work shifts from section to section. Very often you don't know which direction to take."

"We welcome the improvements to the road. It looks like it will be a great road with six traffic lanes and a flyover over the level crossing. But how much longer are we to wait for the road to be completed?" he asked.

"It's terrible," complained Ariya Ranawana from Kelaniya who travels weekly to the Rajagiriya Ayurveda Hospital. "I take the bus down Baseline road. It used to be a terrible bus ride but now, it's crazy. The dust and the pace of traffic- it's killing. I feel sorry for the people who have to travel daily.When will this road be over?"

It looks like motorists and passengers will have to put up with dust, congestion, and construction for at least nine months more.

"Hopefully the road will be ready in December," Road Development Authority General Manager P.B.L. Cooray said. The delay, he said, was chiefly due to utility lines which were found underground while construction was on going.

"These had to be removed and relocated. This was the biggest problem," he said.

He said that these lines- water, electricity and drainage- were not surveyed and even the departments, which owned some of these lines were not aware of their existence until they were unearthed during construction.

The best example was what happened to the flyover. One side of the flyover was completed nearly a year ago. When the contractor was pile driving for the columns to hold the other side of the flyover, they came across some long forgotten service lines. The Department concerned had to then remove and relocate the lines, which took months. The flyover columns are beginning to take shape only now.

The contractors, Kumagai Gumi of Japan have asked and received approval to extend the date until December 1999. Mr. Cooray said no penalty was involved since the RDA approved the reasons for extending the deadline. "It's not the contractors' fault," he said.

The cost of constructing the six-lane road, with the sub-way pedestrian crossing and flyover is Rs. 2.5 billion - funded by the Japanese OECF (Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund) on a soft loan.

Baseline Road, Phase one, extends from the Kelani Bridge to Borella junction.

At Borella, an underground underpass for pedestrians will make sure that traffic is not disturbed at the junction. The second phase of the project will widen the road going past Kanatte to Edmonton Road in Kirulapone.

The idea is to link the Baseline to Galle Road at Ratmalana creating an outer city road, which allows vehicles travelling north to south of Colombo to avoid the heart of the city "The delay in phase one will not affect the other phases of the project," Mr. Cooray said.

But the four-kilometre stretch of Baseline road from the bridge to Borella is also the most important. It connects to the Low Level Road a road which carries a large amount of cargo traffic and it travels through the bustling township of Dematagoda, carrying a heavy load of traffic every hour.

No one has calculated the loss to the economy by such undue delays in completing essential roadways- the lost hours in traffic, the congestion and late cargo.

It reflects badly on the country if extending a four kilometre stretch of very important roadway takes over three years. It is just as important to have the road ready on time, as it is to build a good road.

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