For approximately six week, beginning September 14 and continuing through to the end of October, life will be a big inconvenience for people living or doing business in or near Tweedside Road, The City.
Water shortages and outages, as well as traffic diversions will be the norm during this period, as the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) extends its pipe-laying project which began on Roebuck Street on August 11; and persons who do not have to use this route have been asked to avoid it.
The project involves the replacement of the current 14-inch pipes with a 16-inch high-density polyethylene water main.
Shelley Parris, project engineer of the BWA’s project execution unit has warned businesses that they may experience water outages or shortages, therefore they must be prepared.
“You don’t even have to start with buckets, you can start with something as simple as pet bottles. Just start putting down that water so that you can make alternate arrangements for what you are planning to do for that day.
“Also make provisions so that when our tanks do come around, they can deliver something to you. If you don’t have anything, we can’t deliver anything to you,” she said.
During this period there will be diversions on Tweedside road, which will be restricted to one-way traffic into Bridgetown. Traffic will not be allowed to exit Bridgetown via Tweedside Road.
“You will have to go via Halls Road, Belmont Road or seek an alternate route. The residents who live on the streets, off of Tweedside Road on the left hand side going into Bridgetown when they come out on the street they are asked to exit left and those on the opposite side of the road, they are asked to make a right turn onto Tweedside Road.”
The work is being done by Infra Inc under the JADA Builders Inc group. General Manager of Infra Inc Roger Gill has also warned motorists there will be equipment on site which may cause some level of inconvenience.
“It will not be fast flow, so avoid Tweedside Road all together or it could lead to some frustration. Expect delays,” he said.
When Tweedside Road is completed, the water mains replacement project will continue on Roebuck Street where about 500 metres of main have already been installed.
“The road at Roebuck Street will be reopened to through traffic for the time being until we complete this work on Tweedside Road.
“We are basically moving equipment out this way so that we can continue this work and then return to do the completion of that installation exercise,” Gill explained.
Meanwhile, businesses in the area told Barbados TODAY that while they were bracing themselves for the inconvenience, they hoped their pockets would not be affected.
However, they said they understood and accepted that the work had to be done for the benefit of the country.
“It could really affect especially now that school will be reopening. It could affect me because I have to pay rent and utilities. If I don’t have water for one day, I will loose money for that whole day,” hairdresser and salon owner Myrtle Brathwaite said.
Roger Smith, Managing Director of Paints Plus said he hoped there would not be too many disruptions that would lead to customers finding it difficult to access the business.
Several City businesses were forced to close early on August 22 because of a lack of water following the rupture of a 15-inch main on Roebuck Street, due to the pipe-laying exercise.