West Coast businesses hurt from current roadworks

Residents and businesses along Highway 1 are growing increasingly restless about an extended road rehabilitation project that appears to have no definitive end in sight.

Businesses in particular say they’ve been dealt a double blow – first from the Covid-19 pandemic and now, from the untimely initiative that is threatening to slash much-needed Christmas profits. Meanwhile, for those living in the area, the eagerly anticipated repairs are now starting to feel like much more than a mere transitory inconvenience.

In mid-October, Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources Ian Gooding-Edghill announced the start of phase 1 of the West Coast project that targeted the roadway from the bottom of University Hill from the south and continuing as far north as Sunset Crest and Holetown, St. James.

Although most of the work occurs at night, the stretch has become an almost 24-hour congestion hub as motorists contend with large manholes, high amounts of dust, and inconvenient diversions, as they attempt to manoeuvre the coastal artery.

Those with private and commercial interests were informed that the first phase would be completed on December 15. However, on December 16, traffic was still being carefully directed and diversions were still in place. The project appeared to be far from finished, none of the roadway has been paved and it appears that mains-laying work included in the project is still to be completed.

Efforts to reach Minister Gooding-Edghill for an update on the situation have been unsuccessful, but Barbados TODAY has been reliably informed of plans for a walkthrough of the affected areas by relevant authorities.

Smack in the middle of the congestion is the Jordans Supermarket Fitts Village, where Assistant Manager Sabrina Jordan revealed that management has been holding out hope of an increase in sales over the holiday season to offset a 20 per cent falloff in revenue over the past year. Much to their dismay they are enduring a further falloff in sales, as prospective customers avoid the area.

“There has been a further decline on top of what we already had from COVID. I guess some people can’t be bothered because of [the state of] the roads and the dust to come and shop here… I am just hoping that they soon finish the work and get people coming back into the store,” Jordan said.

“The stock, like the hams and stuff are not moving as quickly, so perhaps we will have to see what moves off, before ordering things again,” she added.

A short distance away at Risk Road, St. James, John Simpson, who owns the Wendy’s Sports Bar told Barbados TODAY of an approximately 20 per cent falloff in revenue.

The small business owner, however, admitted that based on the magnitude of the job at hand, he had little faith in the December 15 completion date.

“A lot of people have stopped coming, obviously because of the traffic and the dust. So people who would have previously come for food or to watch a game, would be looking elsewhere,” said Simpson.

“It’s hard to get people out. It’s hard with the COVID, and it’s triply hard with the road right now,” he added.

Any diversion along the stretch occurs at the Holder’s Hill junction and at Holetown coming from the north, where motorists, including public transportation are required to travel away from the coast through the posh Sandy Lane Golf Course area.

Consequently, the Esso Service Station at Payne’s Bay has been virtually isolated from commercial activity, with the exception of a handful of people who are allowed to venture beyond the road closure on their way to and from home and work.

“We have lost perhaps 50 per cent,” revealed supervisor Martin Sampson, who noted that while traffic in the station’s convenience store has been down, sales at the pump have all but dried up.

He also lamented the lack of information from authorities on the progress of the project. This was a sentiment shared among residents. (kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)