Story Created:
Sep 6, 2012 at 10:39 PM ECT
Story Updated:
Sep 6, 2012 at 10:39 PM ECT
MOTORISTS heading into Port of Spain today are expected to have a much less stressful experience compared to yesterday when they encountered gridlock traffic as the majority of drivers avoided the collapsed section of the Beetham Highway at Sea Lots.
As a result, the Priority Bus Route and Eastern Main Road were choked with traffic heading west up to 10 a.m., but it improved by 10.30 a.m.
On Wednesday, around 11.30 a.m., a Sea Land truck-trailer was heading west along the Beetham Highway in Sea Lots, opposite PTSC, when, seconds after the vehicle passed, a six-foot circular chunk of road collapsed.
The Works Ministry later explained that a culvert (a circular drain) collapsed when the truck passed over.
It was the actions of Sea Lots resident Gabriel Garraway that saved many motorists from driving into the hole. Garraway, along with other residents, began cordoning off the hole by placing debris around it.
The two northern-most lanes of the west-bound highway were blocked, forcing cars to avoid the sinkhole.
The highway was reduced to one lane and residents called the police, who residents claimed took two hours to arrive at the scene.
But a sergeant at Besson Street Police Station, who did not want to be named, said they took 15 minutes to get to the scene.
Sea Lots residents also said that two weeks ago WASA dug up the highway to repair a burst water main, but according to Ellen Lewis, WASA's head of corporate communications, there was no connection between that work and the structural failure of the roadway.
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