By the end of April, the Ministry of Public Works says that the traffic flow at one of the busiest junctions in the city – Regent and Camp streets – will be transformed and this will see faster movement of traffic and reduced waiting time.
As reported before in Stabroek News, Terence O’Brien, head of the Traffic and Highway Lights Department of the Ministry of Public Works, noted that a study was done at the Regent and Camp streets junction by the Chief Transport Planning Officer Patrick Thompson. A release today from the Ministry of Works said that the data from the study was utilised in a traffic software that models and simulates junction movements.
“The junction analysis revealed that if two right turns and no parking on the eastern side of Camp Street between Robb and Regent were to be restricted, the flow of traffic would be improved significantly and the delays would be reduced by approximately 70 percent (from 94.5 seconds to 31.4 seconds)”, the release said.
The objective is to create a continuous flow incorporating a filter lane. This will allow a greater volume of traffic to be discharged while reducing the cycle time, O’Brien explained in the press release.
To facilitate this, all traffic lights junctions along Camp Street will have to be adjusted and synchronized to gel with the changes at the Camp and Regent streets junction.
Road signs, vertical and horizontal will be set up shortly by the Traffic Signs and Maintenance Department to guide motorists into the appropriate lanes, as they near the junction, the release said.
“We are hoping for it to be implemented by April month end,” O’Brien said.
He also revealed, according to the release, that Traffic Engineers have completed the geometric improvement design for the junction at Lamaha and Albert streets. They will also begin a city wide study this year starting at key junctions, such as Irving and Lamaha streets, Camp and Lamaha, Vlissengen and Sandy Babb, Vlissengen Road and Regent Street.
The release added that the Ministry’s traffic department continues its effort to maintain the 50 traffic lights in and around the city despite the numerous accidents and vandalism. It said that a significant amount of investment was made into protective barriers, heavy duty cabinets and tamper proof locks.
The Traffic Lights were installed by CMS Traffic Systems Limited of India and inaugurated in July of 2007. Prior to that these parts of the city had been without working traffic lights. Financing was made possible through a line of credit (LoC) from the Indian Exim Bank of US $2.1M.
