Dear Editor,
This afternoon (Thursday) I had the pleasure for the first time of travelling on the road which is south of the National Stadium and parallel to the Mocha Access Road. This happened when the minibus driver, apparently on the spur of the moment, decided that in order to get to Mocha more easily, he could use that route instead of proceeding to the Mocha Access Road, which is currently under reconstruction because it is in a terrible state. I then wondered why the authorities, advisers and senior public servants did not think of making this road (south of the stadium) an alternative route to the East Bank Public Road for the residents of Mocha-Arcadia who have light vehicles during the period of re-construction.
Over the past two years Mocha residents had to engage in self-help work patching the Mocha Access Road with builders‘ waste. They have also collected donations from drivers to buy a bag of cement to help to fill the potholes, approached the Ministry of Works road engineers to effect some urgent repairs, and finally taken protest action by blocking traffic on the road when the situation became overbearing.
This led to intervention by the police.
The poor condition of the road has taken a toll on vehicles, since we spend more on spare parts, there is more down-time for minibuses and more inconvenience for commuters.
Add to this the need to wash vehicles on a daily basis, as if you have been travelling to the interior.
This is also not to forget the possibility of failing a fitness test for the vehicle because of brake problems, or because of smooth tires developing more quickly owing to the poor road surface.
Then there is the increased time taken to traverse the road now under reconstruction. The dice are loaded in the favour of the state.
All of this unpleasantness, inconvenience and bad blood could have been avoided if some thought had been given to providing an alternative route for the Mocha residents by way of the road south of the stadium.
This would have been more cost-effective in more than one sense.
It is so obvious! Is nobody thinking? Was no thought given to alleviating the difficulties for the commuting residents of Mocha-Arcadia?
Yours faithfully,
Walter B Alexander
